


Love Will Have Sacrifice

by a_little_hope (orphan_account)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood and Gore, Carmilla-esque Themes, F/M, Journalism Student - Freeform, Kidnapping, Knives, Mentions of Occult, Mentions of Witches, Rey is annoyed, Sexual Tension, Slight Bisexualism, Vampire Feeding, Wingman Phasma, garlic - Freeform, vampire rey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2018-12-24 07:13:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 44,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12007704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/a_little_hope
Summary: Coruscant University is not what it seems. Ben's roommate goes missing and he is stuck with an unruly girl who likes to sleep until noon and doesn't pick up after herself. As he deals with her, he decides to report on the multiple missing persons for his journalism project, but it turns out he's in way over his head.





	1. Welcome to Coruscant University, Where Everything Is Multiple Choice

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is directly inspired by Carmilla and Welcome to Nightvale.

Ben had sat on the computer for hours, a feeling of impending doom in his stomach, which probably could have just been the two cups of coffee and the piece of pizza he had had for dinner. He had only been here about a week and he already had a journalism project and he had no idea what he was going to do. "You've been staring at that blank screen for hours," His roommate, Mohr, said. Ben looked over to his roommate's bed. He was pretty sure the boy had been texting for hours. 

"At least I'm attempting to my home work." He said, "We have almost all the same classes so I know your workload is as fucked as mine."

"Homework, Homework. All you do is homework," The boy whined, "a guy like you should be partying. That's what college is supposed to be about anyway." Ben had never been exposed to peer pressure before, (probably because he had no friends), so he caved pretty easily. 

"Fine," he sighed. 

Mohr seemed to be surprised by how easily Ben gave in. "Great, dude." Both boys got up from their seats. "But first we have to get you out of those nerdy ass clothes."

* * *

Rey had always thought that college parties were so juvenile. These days kids thought that getting black out drunk was fun and edgy, and the boys lacked class. She stood on the outskirts of the latest bonfire party, watching others dance to crappy pop music and do body shots. "You're a rather brooding outcast," a voice said. She turned around. 

"Hux," The disgust in her voice wasn't even disguised. He carried two plastic cups. 

"Oh, sis. You should be more excited to see me, it's been awhile." Rey refrained from mentioning the last time they'd seen each other they both had competing assassination plans. 

"I love your sarcasm," She sneered. 

"Is that sarcasm?" 

"Witty as ever, ginger bitch." They stood together, watching the bonfire. He gives her one of the glasses. It's wine. "Trying to poison me, again?" He laughed and she decided not to rule out that possibility. 

"No, I've gotten over that. Besides, how grumpy do you think _Father_ would be if I killed his _favorite child?_ " Rey wanted to throw up. She hated his voice with all her being. "Now... Are you here to do your job or are you here to keep brooding?"

She gave him a side glance. "You haven't so much as gotten off your ass as of late. It's your turn." Rey wanted to throw the wine back at him, but realized she might need it later. 

 "Suit yourself," He shrugged. "I'll see you later."

* * *

 

Ben woke up in his bed, but he was fairly glad he did not in fact have a hangover. He could barely remember last night, but he remembered a few things. 

For one, Mohr taking body shots. 

For two, girls that he found fairly vapid trying several times to hit on him. 

After that, the night became wild bits and fragments. He got up from his bed and saw the lump where the boy was sleeping. 

Now was as good of time as any to start his journalism project. 

He had conveniently remembered that media format could be video, so he could just improvise this bullshit. He turned on the video camera on his computer and began his improvising his project. "Hello everybody, this is Ben Solo, and today is day one of my journalism project. Halfway through the first week here at Coruscant University and I can already tell that this might in fact be the strangest place that I have ever gone to. My roommate, Mohr, the yaeger bomb king and complete idiot forced me to tag along at the bonfire party and it got completely out of hand. Not only did the alchemy club decide to release a mushroom cloud of ish that had the same effects as marijuana on the masses, but it also seemed that idiot over there took that as a chance to drink even more alcohol. Speaking of the yaeger bomb and body shot champion, let's see what the after effects of a full bottle of vodka does to a person in the morning." Ben snickered, but then almost felt bad, he rolled his chair over to his roommate's bed, took a hold of his comforter and pulled it back. 

He wasn't there. There were a few pillows in his place.

"Huh?" Ben could have sworn Mohr and him came back to the apartment together. He stared at the pillow for a few seconds before looking around.

Maybe the boy went somewhere and left a note. For a second, he saw nothing, and then a mysterious note covered in weird goo. He picked up the note,trying not to gag as he tried to read the letter. He read aloud, "Dear Individual of Coruscant University, Mohr Aclima has mysteriously vanished. Don't be worried, because either one of three things happened:

A) The student decided to switch dorm rooms due to your intolerable nature. 

B) The student lost their scholarship and elected to go home. 

C) Or, the student elected to go to a different school, and really, why does anybody do anything anyway?" He looked straight towards the camera, "What?"

* * *

 

_Four hours of angry phone calls to the administration later._

"Finally! Someone I can talk to! Listen, my roommate was at the bonfire party and went missing last night. I want to report it to campus police."

"Did you receive a note?" The person on the other end of the receiver asked.

"Yes but it didn't make any sense, I mean he wouldn't just leave during the middle of the night and he was drunk, why don't you call someone to look for him, or even call the police-?"

"Do you want a new roommate, because that can be arranged. " Ben was glad he had the phone on speaker and the camera was still on. 

"What? No. I have... Had a roommate and I'm asking you to do something to help find him!" The line went dead. "Fuu-" Ben remembered the camera was on, and turned back to it after taking a sigh and turning back to the camera. "I'm glad I'm recording this. Since it seems that the school won't do anything about it, I will. I'm uploading this to the school ethernet and then may be someonr will care that my roommate is missing and I'm left with a weird multiple choice card-"  

The door opened. "Mohr-" Ben swiveled in his chair to see a girl with sleek, dark brown hair, wearing all black through the door. "-who are you?"

"Rey. I'm your new roommate, cupcake."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, they will grow in length as the chapters go along.


	2. Chapter Two: What?

"But your not my gender," 

"Congratulations, you know the difference between the two human sexes." The girl said, "but that doesn't matter because the university had coed dorms," Maybe it was that British accent that made everything she said a little more infuriating, but Ben was already up in arms. Compared to her, Ben towered above her, but she was not the least bit intimidated.

"Whatever, it still doesn't change the fact that I already have a roommate." She dropped her bag on Mohr's bed and then followed suit despite what he said. 

"And where is this elusive roommate of yours?" She stared up at him, placing her boots on the bed. She had just met him two seconds ago and she already knew exactly how to piss him off. Ben returned the glare, and for a second they stood there, trying to assert dominance. Ben lost. 

"He's missing,"

"Ah, sure." She rolled her eyes and laid back on Mohr's pillow. Ben wanted to scream. Maybe this girl was used to getting what she wanted because of her looks, but Ben was not going to give up so easily. 

"I'm sure he'll be back soon though,"

"Mm," the girl closed her eyes. "I'll tell you what, as soon as this magic man appears I'll get out of your hairs." Ben sat down. 

"Fine,"

"Fine."

* * *

 

The first night she was there was already off to a rough start. Ben had a nightmare that there was a man in white standing at the edge of his bed that but he couldn't see his face. Then the room started filling with something. Black liquid, blood, it was too hard to tell. When he had woken up Rey through a pillow at his face and said, "You're too loud cupcake, there are other people in the room too."

Each day only seemed to get more infuriating, she would refuse to pick up for herself, and it wasn't long before Ben found her hair in the drain of their shower. Clothes she had taken off on the floor, and it seemed the more he would talk to her about chores, the more she would scowl at him or ignore him. He had never met a girl who so lax about the mess that she left behind. 

That wasn't the worst bit though. It wasn't because off how odd she acted, and how she had a special milk carton that Ben could most  _ **definitely**_  not drink out of. 

It was how she acted when Ben started gathering evidence for the case. 

Whenever she disappeared during the day to wherever she went to she would bring back "study buddies", (both men and women), flip off the camera, and then preceed to unsavory things with them while the camera was still rolling. "You just have to get better at turning it off, cupcake." She would say.

"I'm trying to do something good, to make sure people are looking for Mohr. Hell, maybe this will reach someone else."

"Well you better be glad it doesn't get views, sweetcheeks, or the Dean would scalp your pretty head." Rey hissed. "And honestly I would pay to see that."

He took that personally. 

 

That's when things started to get more annoying. One day Ben decided to get back at her and drink her milk with his cereal. 

Except... It wasn't milk. 

It was blood. 

Blood.

 

Of course it was blood.

 

Ben wanted to ask, _why in a fucking milk container?_ But Rey wasn’t in the room to explain herself at that point, so he did the next logical thing. He ranted to his camera for the journalism project, and then left it on as he called the Resident Assistant to come and help him.

  
The resident assistant had gotten there a lot sooner than he expected. “You called,” A boy that looked a little younger came through the door with another by his side. "I'm Finn, this is my friend Poe we heard you had a complaint." He sounded way too calm for this situation. 

 

“Yes, I called.” Ben said impatiently. “I called because my insane roommate is really starting to get on my nerves.”

  
“Ah, okay.” The RA replied. It was rather underwhelming to hear that, “and you want to report the incident.”  _Did he not hear what she had done when they had talked over the phone?_

 

“Of course I want to report her, there's blood in my fucking milk container.” For a second, Finn's eyes widened as he looked at the reddened cereal bowl, then he looked to Poe, who for some reason looked extremely excited.

"She has blood in her milk container, that's gotta be some sort of health code violation."

"There there, we don't actually know that it's blood. Or if it is blood we don't know why she has it. Maybe she has an advanced haemoglobin deficiency disorder and needs it survive and really who are we to judge her?"

  
"I say she's a vampire." Poe said.

“You can't just say that,”

 

“Of course I can say that. It's obviously the most logical explanation.”

  
“Logical?”

  
"What are you two smoking?"

 

“The truth,” Poe said. Finn promptly ignored him.

 

“Sorry. Anyways, I'm afraid there isn't really anything I can do about that.”

 

Ben got up, “Fine. I guess if you can't help me, I'll go to the Dean.” Poe was the one who stopped him.

 

“No, no, no. You _really_ don't want to do that.” He pushed him back onto his seat and Finn backed up.

 

“Listen, uh… the Dean is a very… _temperamental man_ to say the least but you shouldn't worry any ways, soon your roommate will be back and Rey will get out of your hairs, that's what happened with the other missing people anyways.”

  
“What?”

"Just forget about it for now, okay? You'll be safer that way."

 

 

* * *

 

Rey had appeared out of nowhere at midnight. She had a bottle of wine in her hand, and her hair was tied back in a single knot at the top of her head. “Hey,” She said. “You're still awake,” at this time she seemed a lot more mellow than she did during the day. She might be intoxicated.

“Mm,” Ben kept clicking away at his computer, trying not to show how tense he was.

  
“Do you really stay there looking at that screen all day?” She set the bottle down and walked forwards, she was awfully close to his face, her cool breath on his face.

_Ask her. Confront her about it._

 

“No.” He swallowed and swallowed hard. “I had class. Slept some.” Rey raised an eyebrow and walked over to her bed.

 

“Real straight laced cupcake,” she hissed. “Sometimes to experience the importance in life one must not take oneself so seriously.”

 

The girl was about to lay down in her bed when he asked, “Why was there blood in the milk container?”

 

Silence.

 

She threw her covers back.

 

“I told you not to touch that.”

 

“That doesn't answer my question,”

 

“It was just a stupid prank, okay? Corn syrup and some food coloring. No reason to get your panties in a twist.”

 

“What is wrong with you?”

  
“Plenty, cupcake. Now why don't you do both of us a favor and go to bed.”

 

* * *

 

Sometimes, Rey forgot that the human race was insane. 

One person goes missing and suddenly they go all up in arms. Ben Solo had developed talking to a camera like he was some sort of Clark Kent like journalist, trying to find his missing roommate. Half of the time he was complaining about her when she wasn't in the room and thought she couldn't hear him though. She hadn't helped matters by saying, "Maybe if you stopped this Lois Lane bullshit and focused more on getting laid you wouldn't be stressed out all the time." He ranted for about an hour about that. 

Now he had a new woman in the room. Tall, blonde, and dangerous was really starting to get on her nerves too. 

* * *

 

Ben had enlisted the help of his TA, Phasma, after she had approached him about her missing friend Rose. 

She had been the one to approach him, though.  _"Hey, I heard that you're looking into a missing roommate." She didn't even give him the time to answer this. "Is it okay if we talk in your dorm room later, I don't want to say it out here, but I think I may be able to help you with your case. My friend Rose disappeared in the same place a few weeks later."_

Ben also got some pleasure out of pissing Rey off. 

For some reason, as soon as Phasma was in the room, Rey was annoyed. Despite the fact that Rey brought multiple boys and girls over without caring. “You said you had some thoughts about the missing people, so come on, tell me more.” Before she had a chance to speak, Rey said

“I can already tell that you’re going to be annoying,” Rey grumbled into her book. Phasma raised an eyebrow and said,

“I can see what you mean.”

“What?”

Ben and Phasma didn’t explain anything. They just got to work. “So my friend Rose, who’s in the Summer Society with me and I went to a bonfire party. Same area of the party that you went to, we both drank, a lot. There was a lot of fog. I think the alchemy club had set off these weird smoke bombs, everyone was drunk so they didn’t seem to care because we were all almost black out drunk, I went back to my room and I thought that Rose had followed or would follow later, but she’s been missing for almost a week and…”

 

Rey started coughing very loudly and then got up. “Sorry, got a case of bored.”

“Would you suggest anything to help?” Ben said. Rey rolled her eyes and popped the bottle of wine she was carrying last night, taking a drink from the bottle.

“If you really want to help, you should talk to the roommates or the people who disappeared. Not just one of them I mean. All of them.”

“We don’t know everyone’s that been going missing.” Ben told her. “The school’s been keeping this under wraps. I know you’re an emotionless void who doesn’t give a shit about anything but you pay attention right?” Another swig, Phasma looked like she was about to say something but Ben stopped her. “Of course I pay attention. But you said that the school’s been covering up the disappearances of these people. Maybe there’s a reason for that, cupcake.” With that she left.

* * *

 

 

Rey had been walking the grounds for hours after midnight. Now she felt more alive than ever. The moon, the stars, they made her feel small and everything was silent. She liked it like that, for the small moment it was like that. Before the alcohol started to turn her inhibitions to mush, and Hux decided to try and come up behind her. “What?” She asked.

 

“I really don’t want to remind you of the tasks that you’re facing.” He still doesn’t make an attempt to stay next to her. “And what will happen if you don’t do what the Dean asks of you.”

 

“Shut up,” She said. “Baby fangs,”

 

“Resorting to name calling, aren’t you? You may have turned me but that does not mean I work for you.” Rey stopped and turned around, her boots digging into the dirt that dusted the concrete. No one else was out or about, so if Rey decided that things needed to get violent, neither of them would be noticed.

 

“Listen, I know what I have to do.”

 

“You cannot have us be found out.”

“I won’t. Unlike you, ginger bitch, this is not the first time that I’ve done this. The mortal won’t be a problem. Promise.”

* * *

It had been hours and Ben felt like they had gotten nothing, they ended up groaning, with pictures strewn about the evidence board, a few energy drinks had been guzzled, and heads had been banged on desks. “Well, four hours, and we have nothing.” Phasma sighed and looked back at the board as Ben ranted for his journalism project for a few minutes.

 

“Hate to burst your bubble of frustration," Phasma interrupted, "but I think we do actually have something."

"What? Really?" Ben turned to the evidence board again as Phasma began to explain things to him. 

"Yeah, okay, so we did find two other missing freshmen and a junior, Rose and Mohr disappeared at the bonfire parties and Paige Tico and Jessika Pava at the mixer, they all have one thing in common, the people that were serving the drinks. The Alchemy Club.”

* * *

* * *

 

 

Rey had come back after Phasma had left. Once again, Ben found she wasn’t as awful as she had been before. But this time she wasn’t drunk. Ben had been sitting in his bed, reading a book, trying to get to sleep when she started talking. “The stars are beautiful tonight,” Ben turned to see her at the window.

 

“Didn’t hear you come in,”

 

“I have a special talent on sneaking up on people,” She said. Something in her voice seemed extremely bitter, like she was trying to repress some memory. “And you seem to have a special talent of ruining your sleep schedule.” Ben almost laughed at that. She wasn’t wrong.

 

“Where did you go?”

 

“Out,” She said. “Wanted to get away from blonde Xena.”

 

“Her name is Phasma,”

  
“I like blonde Xena better, but that’s besides the point,” Rey was perched by the window, still looking out at the stars, “I needed to clear my head.” 

 

“Wanted to brood elsewhere?”

 

“Yes, I didn’t want my angst to get in the way of your…  _ investigation _ .” She laughed, and then got up from the window cill. “You know, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, I appreciate the fact that you’re trying to do the Lois Lane thing and all that, but kriffing hell you’re going to make things harder for yourself.” 

 

Ben quirked an eyebrow at her, “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

 

“It means that some things are better left unknown, that’s what keeps you safe, what keeps you alive.”

 

“That sounds fairly ominous,” 

 

“Fairly,” She sat down on her bed and Ben got a better look at her. She looked sad. Ben wanted to ask her what was wrong, but he decided against it, she would deflect it. “Listen, I don’t know about you but I’m tired. Truce?” For a second, Ben didn’t know what to say, but he had a feeling that whatever truce they would have would last for all of however long Rey chose to sleep. 

  
“Okay,” He said. “Truce, we should both get some sleep anyway.”


	3. Chapter Three: A Weirdly Nice Peace, A Rather Unexpected Development

“Hi, I haven’t updated in a hot second, so I would just like to catch up the few amount of people that actually care.” He laughed at his own attempt at self deprecation, “anyways I’m attaching some footage of Rey oddly acting nice to me after the weird blood thing just so I can confirm that I’m not crazy in thinking she’s hiding something. I mean it’s great that she’s finally not making my life a living hell but it’s kind of suspicious that the change was so abrupt. She goes out late at night and appears out of nowhere and…” He sighed, realizing that he was going on for too long, “Anyways, enough about my misanthropic roommate and more about the case, which is the reason my very few viewers are watching this. So Phasma and I interviewed some of the people from the Alchemy club, including Poe. Who I had not expected to participate in that kind of stuff. No offense to the alchemy club but they’re not exactly people that look as attractive as him. Off topic, Poe said that the Alchemy club was told to supervise drinks by this ginger guy, but we haven’t been able to get much more off of it.”

 

Suddenly Finn burst through the door. “Man, I have something I need to tell you, I think it might help with the case.”

 

Rey came through the door shortly after, eyebrow raised.

 

“I’m sorry who is this?” Finn asked.

 

“I’m his roommate,”

 

Finn looked like he was about to say something but stopped himself and turned back to Ben, “Sorry, got off track.”

 

“Rude,” She muttered before sitting down on her bed and pulling out a book about Sumerian mythology.

 

“So two of those girls that went missing. The sisters. Paige and Rose, they’re back. They just showed up in their respective study halls with no idea what happened and I thought you might want to talk to them?” He talked really fast.

 

“They’re back?”

 

“Yeah, they’ve been back for a few hours apparently.”

 

“Yeah, if you could get them to come over here that would be great.” Finn nodded, and with that he left. Rey was engrossed in her book, no snarky comment followed this revelation.

 

“So, it looks like we’ve got a new development and maybe this will help find Mohr and the other missing students.”

 

That’s when Rey laughed, or coughed, he wasn’t really sure at this point. “What?”

“What? I didn’t say anything.”

 

“You laughed,”

 

“Oh, yeah. I did do that.” She didn’t look up from her book.

 

“Why?”

“If I say something you’ll just whine about it to your small little gathering of viewers and all.”

 

“Hasn’t stopped you before,”

 

“You’re right, it hasn’t.”

 

“So say something,”

 

“Really?” She shut her book and set it to the side.

 

“Really.”

 

“Fine,” She sighed. “It’s not like you’re going to listen. But I don’t think you should talk to them. Don’t you think that these girls have probably experienced something really traumatic and bringing up bad memories this soon might be bad for them?” _Shit._ She was right, in some point.

"I still have to find out what happened to them," He said. "Someone's taking people on campus and making people feel unsafe. I would be looking just as hard if they took you." There it was again. That look of... _was it sadness or shock in her eyes?_ She furrowed her brow and went back to her book, completely silent after that. Ben didn't have to wait too long for other noise though, because Paige and Rose came through the door with Finn following closely behind. 

* * *

 

Rey wished Ben would lock the door for once in his life. 

 _No wonder his roommate got abducted._ She thought to herself. She sat there for a while, listening to the girls talk. So far they weren't supplying anything useful, but it didn't take Rey long to start getting annoyed by their presence.

Rose was looking at her a little too long. Like she remembered. Rey pursed her lips, trying not to get involved.  _Just read your Sumerian mythology, Rey. Let Ben be annoying._

"I remember seeing a big black cat,"

"I saw a raven or a crow or something." That's when Rey tensed, deciding that was enough.

* * *

 

Rey had laughed and Ben didn't know why. It seemed to disturb the girls though. "Sorry," She said. "Ishtar just locked Innana in a mortal body and it's like the funniest shit ever."

"Weird thing to laugh about but okay," Rose says, before turning back to Ben. "I wish we could help you more, but neither of us remember anything from when we were missing. Like I said all I remember is seeing--"

A whistle interrupted them, and suddenly Rose burst out crying. 

"I'm sorry," Paige said. "Sometimes she gets like this, its her anxiety." Ben looked back to Rey,  _she did something,_ she shrugged that same borderline sociopathic shrug. He wanted to say something but both girls were still there. That's when he remembered Finn was still there. 

"Hey, it's okay. Do you want to go get some hot chocolate?" Both girls accepted and were about to leave when Rose said,

"I'm so sorry. But please be careful. And if you see it in your dreams, don't let it touch your face."

* * *

 

Ben immediately turned to her, saying, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"That's like the ten millionth time you've asked me that."

"You made her cry!"

He was shouting now. 

"Slow down there, Batman. It's not that big of a deal."

 "Not that big of a deal? Oh my god do you want me to kill you?" She closed her book, sitting up on her bed. 

"Doubt you have the guts to actually try it," She said, "you see, you may not get this, but you're in way of your head cupcake. And when you finally do realize it, there's going to be no one there to save you from being buried six feet in the ground." This had finally shut him up, much to Rey's satisfaction. Something about their little shouting match had left part of Rey simmering. 

_God he was annoying._

She got up and started walking out of the room. 

"Where are you going?"

"Out."

"What?"

"Out, away from you."

* * *

 

She'd been gone longer than usual. Ten hours at least. Ben wasn't sure he missed her, but it was one in the morning and thoughts of kidnapping were starting to fill his head. 

He wasn't sure if the room had changed, but when he looked up from his bed, he saw a figure, cloaked in white. He couldn't see their face. 

He looked to the side and saw a dark black cat, like the one Rose and Paige talked about. The cat was more like a panther than anything else. He tried to speak, tried to say something, but he couldn't even move. 

The room started to spill blood, rising up faster by the second. Rising up until he drowned. 

* * *

 

"Asshole, wake up." Ben woke up to Rey ontop of him. He pushed her off and she nearly fell off the bed. "Ow, thanks a lot asshole. I came in and you were screaming in your sleep." 

"I... Uh... Wow okay." He sighed, "I had a nightmare."

"No shit," 

"There was this, figure in white, and uh, a cat. The room started filling up with blood... There was so much..." Ben hadn't noticed it at the time, but Reina had tensed at the last part of the sentence. 

"Did the figure in white... Did he say anything?"

"I didn't say it was a he," 

"I assumed, but did it say anything?"

"No... It just stood there. And drowned too. Same with the cat."

Rey looked confused for a minute, before she went to her jewelry box and took out a charm with what looked like a bat wing. She gave it to Ben and said, "This should help with the nightmares."

"Thanks," Ben wasn't sure if he should be grateful or worried that she somehow managed to find a death charm and his doom was very imminent. "Anyways, why would you care?" Rey drew back after that.

"Maybe because I don't want to hear your girly screams when I'm trying to sleep,"

"Gee thanks, by the way, where the hell were you?"

"Partying." She answered. 

"For ten hours?"

Rey raised her middle finger and that was the end of their conversation.

 

* * *

 Rey had spent the last four hours being followed and of course she knew who it was.

Rey wished that Hux stopped following her like a fucking puppy dog, but alas, wherever she went, he followed. She had the last of it when she was walking out of the campus coffee shop with an iced coffee and a cupcake. "Do you just want food or is the Dean having me tailed by the shittiest ginger vampire in existence?"

"Both," Hux said. "You've been going into a lot of restaurants lately."

"Because I'm hungry,"

"Perhaps its because you haven't fed off of live blood for a time." She took a bite of the vanilla icing on her cupcake. "You know, a hunt would be fun. Just the two of us." Rey stopped and looked back at him. "You know I don't feed off the humans any more, asshole. Now talk about hunting people down louder and get our cover blown."

 Hux smirked. He was enjoying this. "I'm just saying that maybe that sexual frustration you're trying to hide between your insidious sweet addiction and alcohol could be cured with a--" Rey didn't want to send her coffee flying at him. She had barely gotten to drink any of it yet. Instead, she liked the top of her cupcake one last time, and pushed the saliva covered end into his face, and began to walk away. 

Silence between the both of them. 

* * *

 

Ben was becoming increasingly suspicious of the fucking bat wing she had given him. "Who gives someone a fucking bat wing?" He asked Poe, who was doing some sort of tests that Ben couldn't begin to comprehend. 

Both Poe and Finn said, "A pagan." At the same time.

"Or a weird vampire,"

"Can we stop with vampirism?" Finn hissed. 

"You can't stop the truth." Finn rolled his eyes but smiled. 

"You're annoying."

"You still love me."

"Uh okay so what about the bat wing she gave me?"

"It's definitely a bat wing," Poe said. "Question is how did she get a dead bat?"

"The question is just grossing me out," Ben said. "But this is all suspicious. She's really suspicious right? The blood in the milk carton, all the vague and ominous foreshadow, the threats that we should stop looking into the missing students, disappearing at night."

"She's probably a vampire," Poe said. 

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"I mean she had blood in that milk carton and she was drinking out of it right? And then she's all weird and mysterious too, she disappears at night like vampires do, often to eat people, and you say that you had a weird nightmare. Probably means that she's a vampire and she has something to do with the kids that have gone missing and is planning on eating you next."

Something about that made sense, and Ben was about to panic when Phasma walked into the room. "Ben Solo," 

"Huh?"

"I don't know what your asshole roommate is playing at but-- why do you look like you just saw a ghost?"

"Because people are finally listening to me." Poe said. "She's a vampire,"

"Wait, what the fresh hell?" 

"What did she do to you?"

"It's not what she did to me, but one of the girls from the Summer Society came in to our house crying after she said that some goth girl and ginger were talking and she asked what they were doing, saying one of them tried to attack her."

Ben was convinced. "Okay, we need to do something about her."

* * *

 

Rey wiped blood off of her face and turned to Hux. "The next time you make me do that, you're dead."

"I just wanted a meal," Hux said. 

"You wanted me to lose control, didn't you?"

"That too. It was pretty fun to watch." 

"I hate you," She said. Part of her felt sick. "But hey, at least she didn't turn."

"Yes, that was rather disappointing."

"I'm going," 

"Where?"

"To my dorm, I'm tired." Hux grabbed her by the wrist, "What?"

"Just a little longer, we have some things to attend to."

* * *

 

It was extremely late when Rey got home and every muscle in her body was screaming. Ben was actually getting out of the shower instead of at his desk at usual, and he seemed rather panicked when he saw that she was there when he didn't have a shirt on. 

"Oh, cupcake... You work out?"

"Why do you call me cupcake? It's uncomfortable," One look was enough for him to realize that was exactly why she called him that. "You're always back so late, it's annoying."

"Sorry, not much I can do about that. I'm more of a night owl."

 "Right," 

They were silent for a minute as Rey watched him put on a shirt. For a nerd he was pretty buff. Then he turned around and said, "Thanks for the bat charm thingy."

She didn't expect that. "Your welcome. My grandpa gave it to me. It worked." 

"You say that like it was a long time ago," Rey smiled,  _hell it was a long time ago._ Way longer than he could even begin to comprehend. Ben sat down across from her, "listen, I wanna say I'm sorry for the bad start we had." Rey's breath caught. 

"No it was mostly my fault, I'm just... Stupid and hostile." Their knees brushed for just a second. 

"We're both to blame," He said. "But um... There's a mixer tomorrow and I thought maybe we could go together? Maybe... You know, as roommates, starting to get to know each other?" 

"Really?"

"Really."

"I'd like that," she couldn't help but smile. She felt like an idiot. "I really would."


	4. Chapter Four: Hook, Line, and A Very Grumpy Vampire

"Okay, so a recap of the plan for the people that haven't been keeping up to date with this. Phasma, Poe and Finn are waiting down at the mixer with a bunch of garlic and holy water and a few stakes just in case things get... Out of hand. When Rey comes down to the mixer with me, we'll capture her and then interrogate her. End of plan. That'll be easy, right?"  _That was convincing,_ he thought to himself. In reality, there was too much that could go wrong with this plan. 

The door creaked open slowly, Ben turned around in the seat. He nearly had a heart attack when he saw her. 

Rey was wearing a corset that left little to the imagination, her leather pants tight around her waisy. She carried two crystalline glasses in one hand and what looked like a champagne bottle in the other. "Well don't you look like a virgin sacrifice."

 Ben swallowed, and swallowed hard. "Oh, hey. I thought I was going to meet you down at the mixer." He was glad the camera was still on.  

"Yeah," She sat down, "but the longer I thought about being around those drunk half wits I lost interest. Besides, you wanted to learn about me, so this would be more ... intimate." The girl poured two glasses and handed one to Ben. She smiled and Ben had to remember that she was a kidnapper, a vampire, not a human. 

"Oh, thanks. Where did you get that very expensive champagne?"

"I have my methods." She was already slightly drunk. 

“Do those methods include stealing?” He asked. She giggled a little and took a sip of her champagne, a solid silence was left over them, and Rey sighed. She pulled Ben’s rolling chair closer to her, looking him over in several ways that Ben was sure meant she was trying to figure out which part would be best to eat first.

 

“God, what am I doing?” She said. “I’m such an idiot,”

 

“Oh, I wouldn’t call you that.”

 

“But I am,” She says, “I’ve seen boys like you before, a little naive, a little too idealistic. A bit lacking in common sense or self preservation. Your kind’s running dry.” Her fingers brushed his skin ever so slightly, feeling like a cool breeze on the back of his neck. “You think by now I would know better.”

 

_Oh god, oh god, oh god. He was going to die and no one would come for him. He’d be used as a blood bag and-_

 

The door swung open and Phasma stormed in the room. “You! Get away from him!” Rey seemed genuinely taken off guard, but she got up and ran for the door. Phasma grabbed her, wrapping both arms around her and lifting up. Rey screamed and kicked, lifting her boot into Phasma’s head. Phasma groaned and dropped her. Rey dug her heel into Phasma’s foot.

 

Ben was sure that she would get away. Finn and Poe were the only ones in the way of her getting away successfully. Finn surprisingly pushed her back, throwing the rope of garlic to Ben. Poe pushed her onto the bed, and Phasma got on top of her, trying to secure her hands. Ben came forward with the rope, ready to tie her up when Phasma was sent flying into the wall next to Ben’s bed. Despite his hesitation, he was ran forward as Phasma rebounded. Poe coming in to help keep her down. She squirmed and screamed and tried to bite several times, but Finn placed duct tape over her face and that problem was eliminated. 

Rey was shoved in an extra chair that Ben had and fastened tightly. A wreath of garlic around her neck.

 

Everything was silent again.

 

Ben was sure everyone just had to catch their breath, so he broke the icy silence. “So… how did you guys find me?”

 

“Common sense,” Phasma said. “As soon as you didn’t report to the spot we said you were going to report to we immediately assumed she-witch had changed the plan.” Rey’s head lolled, probably because of the garlic, but Ben assumed that if she was fully together, she would’ve flipped Phasma off.

 

“Cool. Well I’m glad I didn’t become a human blood bag but we have other things to attend to.”

 

“Yeah, like how are we going to explain why we kidnapped a student and have her held hostage in your room?” Finn asked.

 

“You helped with the plan,” Poe said.

 

“Only because she would’ve hurt you if I didn’t.”

 

“Okay, save all of your flirting for later. We need to focus on the task at hand. Interrogating the vampire.” 

* * *

 

“Right, okay. Interrogation.” Ben got up and turned back to Rey. “Okay evil vampire,” God he was so lame and unintimidating, “we know that you had something to do with the disappearance of my roommate and the others. So time for you to ‘fess up.” Rey looked up at him, her eyes boring holes into him.

 

“Oh you probably should have taken the tape off.”

 

“Right,” _Edit that out later when you put this up for your journalism project._ Ben ripped the tape off of her and she groaned. “Now, time for you to confess.”

 

“You idiots,” Rey’s voice was a little deeper than humanly possible for a few seconds.

 

“What? Frustrated for getting caught?” Phasma asked.

 

“No, no, I’m just frustrated by your complete idiocy.”

 

“What? Why?” Just then a scream erupted from outside. Finn ran to the window and looked out, “No. We caught her. There can’t be any more evil around here.”

 

“Someone fell in the bonfire.”

 

“How?”

 

“Maybe it’s because I didn’t do it.”  

* * *

 

Rey sighed as Finn talked to someone outside, both Phasma and Poe had left. Ben was laying down on his bed, trying to get his heart to stop beating so hard. Rey sighed louder. “Are you going to talk?” Ben asked. Rey gave him that same look, but without other people around, it didn’t seem as threatening. It was more sad. More humiliated than anything else. “You have a chance to absolve yourself of any crime. Just saying I didn’t do it won’t help your case.”

 

“Oh?” She said. “How about this? I didn’t _fucking_ do it.” Ben rolled his eyes. “Besides there’s nothing you can do to me that I haven’t been through already.”

 

“Oh really?”

 

“Really, cupcake. Really.”

 

“Fine,” he said. “But if you expect me to give you blood when you aren’t talking, you’d be wrong.”

 

She didn’t respond, Finn walked in. “So I found out who fell in the bonfire pit.”

 

“Who?”

 

“It was Paige. A friend said she was locked out on the balcony and she was drunk and she fell out and… she didn’t hit the bonfire but she hit the wood at the bottom of it.” Ben felt like he was going to throw up. “Listen I think I’m going to go… talk to her sister and make sure that she’s okay and everything. Try to make sure that she doesn’t kill you.” 

“Thanks, man.”

 

“Yeah, see you later.”

* * *

 

 

“It’s been nine days and she still hasn’t talked.” He looked at Rey. She was almost despondent. Her skin looking almost lifeless, and her lips were tinged blue. She was barely awake. “But she knows that if she did talk I totally would give her this delicious cup of blood.” He tried not to gag as he wafted the red cup of type O blood in front of her. She barely nudged her head, trying to get to the cup before he took it away. “You call me an idiot and yet when I offer you food for information you won’t take it. Stubborn vampire." Someone knocked on the door. Ben walked over to the door and opened it slightly. A ginger boy that was impeccably dressed stood there.

 

“Hello, sir. My name is Armitage Hux and I was wondering if you wanted to talk about global warming-”

 

“No thanks, bye.” He closed the door and locked it, to look back at a seizuring vampire. “No, no, no, no, no, no.” Ben grabbed the red cup of blood and put it to her lips, letting a little bit go down her throat until she came back around. The cup was half empty. “Stubborn vampire. You can’t die, we need you to give information.” Rey coughed.

 

“Oh kriffing,” She groaned. She looked over at Ben and then back down. “I would think that after stating over and over again that I didn’t do it, you would get the hint and release me." 

 

"I'm sorry but you attacked a student and tried to eat me, even if you didn't have something to do with that, I still have a reason to question you." 

"Wait, you thought I was trying to eat you?" She asked. Her voice almost cracked, like she was going to cry. 

 

"What else would that b- Oh." 

 

"Yeah," 

 

" _Oh,_ " 

"God, please stake me now. I think it would be a lot less humiliating than  _this conversation_ ," Ben shook his head, trying to shake the thought out of his head. 

"Now, now, while I'm flattered... that doesn't mean I'm going to release you. You have to talk. You have this chance to clear yourself to me... to everyone. And you'll get released, it's a win win for everyone." Rey sighed again. Louder this time. 

"Fine," She said. "But buckle up because it's long and depressing," 

* * *

Rey couldn't believe that she was doing this. She was being such an idiot, but something in her just couldn't ignore Ben's stupidly positive thinking and idiotic yet oddly endearing fumbling. "Okay, ready. Tragic backstory, now."

"You're annoying," She sneered. Ben was about to reply when she got started. "I was born Kira Kenobi, a duchess in Great Britain way before the Americas have ever been discovered. I think it was like the thirteen hundreds, I don't know, it's all a sort of blur right now. I'd probably be better at remembering things if you hadn't starved me for a week and two days." Of course, without the occasional jab, a  _tragic_ backstory could not be complete. "Anyways, come my eighteenth birthday, I was murdered after my grandfather had passed away. Probably because I refused to get married and managed my own prospects..."

"Wait? Murdered? At your own birthday? You're telling this like a boring history lesson, this is entertaining stuff, come on."

"Oh, I'm sorry that I don't like rehashing things that are touchy subjects asshole." That came out forced, and she started to cough. Ben got some more blood down her throat and she took in a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Anyway, I was murdered. People say that you immediately go to hell or heaven when you die, but that's not true. You're kind of stuck in this hellish limbo. It's pitch black and cold and you can hear other scared people crying out for help, scared and confused, but you can never reach out and find them. You never see another face. You're always alone." She looked over to Ben to see him fidgetting uncomfortably, clenching his fist like he was getting mad, why was he getting mad? "And then He came to me."

"Who's he?"

"I've never seen his face, only heard his voice. He raised me from the dead, and I walked out of the graveyard right when America was being discovered. I was corrupted though, hungry."

"For blood?"

"For blood. For sex. For power. And most of all I was angry because all the people who'd wronged me got to live full lives and I had died. But He assured me that I would get everything I wanted. He would make me go to balls, seduce various men and women at random. They would fall ill. Grow extremely anxious before their world is... simplified... their mind would grow weak. And then they would disappear."

Silence. 

Ben looked pretty freaked out when she said that with such non chalance. "Uh... hate to break it to you, but you're not doing much to help your case of not being a scary lady vampire killer here."

"No, I never killed. I didn't know what happened to them after they left. I would never feed off of them either. They just... _left_ and I would move on to the next one."

"And you never grew suspicious about what was happening to these people in the slightest, did you?"

 "No, I didn't. If I would have asked I would have died again. Anyways, stop interrupting. You asked for a sad backstory so let me tell it," He shut up, "so in the 1700s I was sent to France, where I met him... Kylo Ren. He was arrogant and entirely too involved in himself, and he was the first person I ever loved."

She failed to mention to Ben that this Kylo she spoke of looked almost exactly like him. She failed to mention that the first day she had come into his dorm she felt a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach, "We were such idiots. I planned to run away with him, not considering the consequences that would bring. But He figured out what we were planning." Ben's breath caught. "And He revealed my true nature to Ren in the worst way possible. It was the one night I had lost control... I... I couldn't help it. But that was no matter, the damage was done. Kylo was horrified. He rallied the townspeople against me, and while I was being caged, I began to see the deterioration of his mind, and I couldn't do anything about it. I watched him being dragged away and I was powerless to stop it. I was thrown in a coffin with blood in it, buried so far under the ground no one would ever be able to find me. And for years it stayed like that. Me hopelessly drowning, screaming, choking, knowing that no one would hear me and I was doomed to stay in this tomb for god knew how long."

Rey's breath caught a little when Ben put his hand on her leg, as a means to comfort her. He noticed a little too late that he had done this and retracted his hand. "But what came as a curse to others came as a blessing to me. The Last Great World War of the modern century was the thing that got me out of my prison. I was a free girl. He found me in America in the fifties and I was back to where I started, every once and a while I would ruin opportunities where I could. Let various boys and girls escape."

"Why are you still working for this asshole?"

"Uh, didn't you hear me talk about how He ruined my life and kept me locked up in a coffin for several centuries? I did what I could."

"So do you know where Mohr is?"

"No. I don't." More silence. Ben didn't know what to do with that information. She could see it not computing with him. He had an awful poker face. 

"Okay," he said. "Okay... That's fine," he brought the cup to her lips again and she drank the rest. "Um, listen I'm just gonna sleep on it. We can talk again in the morning."

"Yeah, we'll talk again in the morning."

"Yeah,"


	5. Five: Escape, Ginger Bitches, and A Very, Very, Very Bad Thing, or Ben Got In To Something WAY OVER HIS HEAD

It had been a few days since Rey had opened up to Ben and told the few watchers he had what she was, and everything that had happened to her. Since then his viewership had gone up exponentially and Rey was able to get blood whenever she wanted. Unfortunately, she still wasn't trusted enough to be released, but she was fine sitting there where she wouldn't piss off an angry vampire boss. "Do you have any other movie besides The Room?" Rey asked. 

"No, sorry."

"I can't believe you're one of those assholish teenagers that buys shitty movies ironically."

"Hey! At least its not Cool Cat Saves The Kids."

"That's not much worse, and I still hate you for buying it any way." 

"Whatever," Ben laughed. "I'm going to my Lit class to take a class that I'm probably going to fail, I'll be back in a few hours okay?"

"Sure, leave me alone with the movie that makes me want to spoon my eyeballs out." 

"Bye,"

* * *

 

It had only been a few hours since Ben left her alone, and she was left looking at the end credits for a horrible movie that she had now seen a total of eight times. She hadn't noticed the door open and close behind her, "Oh, this is truly pathetic." 

_Hux._

"Stop gloating and untie me, asshole." 

"Hey, I'm just trying to remember, didn't I tell you you needed to release that sexual frustratio-" 

"Untie me,"

He did as she asked, and she felt the nausea that the garlic had caused wash away. She felt almost like herself again. "I'm starving," 

The door opened again. 

Ben. 

Shit. 

Hux moved in a blur, yanking the boy by his hair and pulling it back so his neck was fully exposed. "Don't," Rey warned. 

"Oh? Want some too?"

"Dude, he's gotta taste weird or something, all nerds taste weird." That was one lame excuse. Ben looked like he was trying to say something, but he was so frightened that he couldn't think of anything to say. Rey quirked her head to the side and said, "Drop him, please." Hux made emotion towards the boy's neck, "or I'll rip your head off and feed your entrails to the local boa constrictors at the school zoo."

"You'd have to catch me first,"

"You know I'd catch you," 

"Want to test that theory?" Like that, he disappeared. For a second, Rey stood there, but then she pushed Ben on the bed. 

"Oh- ow!" She knew this would probably cause him to freak out, but a girl could only have so much stagnant blood. With that she ran out of the room, only a few seconds behind Hux. 

* * *

 

"She bit me! Oh my god she bit me!"

"Hey, man, would you mind explaining why a big black panther is dragging a ginger man down the stairs very slowly, letting his head hit each stair case ... It's kinda weird."

"She bit me!" 

"Hello?" Poe said, "did you hear what I just asked you?"

"Did you hear what I just said?"

"Yeah, and I don't really care." He sighed. Ben turned, almost insulted, but Poe continued on with sentence. "Listen, another girl has been taken. Another one of those notes that you got was there too. I got the goo that was on it, it was cerebral fluid."

"Oh god,"

"Just thought you would want to know, now if you want some weed to forget about how many shades of fucked up this is, I'm in the room a floor above you." He left again. Rey entered shortly after, which brought him back to the original reason he was panicking. 

"You bit me!"

"So?" She picked up a bag and started throwing her things in it. 

"You bit me and all you can say is so?"

"A vampire bite doesn't make you a vampire, cupcake. I had to catch up to Hux, you were the closest thing to a blood bag around, and I was hungry."

"Gee, that makes me feel so much better." He sneered. "Why are you packing?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to leave." Something in Ben's heart leapt. 

"What? Why are you doing that?"

"Because Hux got away, and he's obviously going to tell the Dean on me. I don't want that, so I'm getting out of here, and if you really cared about your life and well being, you should do the same."

"But if Hux goes and tells on you won't you fleeing make you actually look guilty of a crime?" Rey stopped. "If you leave, He will know that you were guilty of whatever Hux says you're guilty of and you'll be hunted down and possibly even killed." 

"So your saying that my best possibility of staying alive is staying here with you,"

"I mean compared some things you told me He did, I don't think this is a very bad alternative."

"You suck,"

"I know,"

"That's not something to be proud of, cupcake." She sat down on the bed, closing her eyes, probably so she could avoid looking at Ben. 

"There's something bothering you,"

"No there's not,"

"Yes, there is."

"No, there's not anything bothering me besides you." Ben knew better than to push. 

"Listen, uh, you know those cards that people get when their roommate goes missing?" She looked up, "That weird stuff on them is cerebral fluid."

“Like the stuff in your brain, cerebral fluid?” Ben nodded, “Okay, that’s kinda gross. But what are you going to do with the information?”

 

“Well maybe if they’re using the cerebral fluid of the people with whatever they’re doing, they need the people to be weak minded, kind of like hypnotism or something.”

 

“Okay, but the thing is, what what they use hypnosis for?” She was actually starting to help. Ben hadn’t expected that to happen. “Or any other weird type of mind control,”

 

“I don’t know, we have to figure out what. But Poe found this out because another person went missing, what if I called him, so we could find where she disappeared? Maybe she left some clues there that someone missed.” Rey nodded.

 

“Yeah,”

 

“Are you going to come with-”

 

“Of course I am, why not?”

 

“Oh just until now you’ve been a scary apathetic vampire who hasn’t really cared about the investigation, except when Phasma’s involved, then you seem to get unreasonably rude and-”

 

“Ben,”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I’m going. Now go call Poe so where we can find out where we need to go,”

* * *

 

 

Having Rey around was a lot more comforting now than Ben thought that it should be, he knew that she was probably just antsy from being tied up for two weeks, but still, he didn’t feel like getting attacked by some big bad and dying was so much of a problem now. The both of them had gone down to the river behind the school where a few drunk kids had been last night, Rey had noticed a little cave like thing where it would’ve been easy to hide, and the two of them proceeded to go in that direction. She insisted on going in front of him, and Ben didn’t protest.

 

That’s when they found it.

 

Weird symbols drawn all over the cave walls in someone’s blood. “Oh god,” Ben felt sick again.

 

“This is new,”

 

“What?”

 

“Sumerian symbols of death for the first time in about one hundred years on this campus.”

 

“You’ve seen these before.”

 

“Yeah, I’ve seen them before. You’re not going to like what they say,” 

* * *

 

"So, lets just say that our little sleuthing expedition didn't go as well as planned. We found these weird Sumerian symbols that Rey could conveniently read because, you know, vampire. Which by the way said, death comes in twos, which didn't make any sense what so ever to me but Rey seems rather bothered about it. Then we got attacked by Hux and some of his lackies, Rey's in the shower washing blood out of her fingernails, but seeing as how  _great_ that went, she's probably not going to want to work with me again." Rey got out of the shower and Ben turned the camera off. "Hey," he said. Rey was quiet, putting on a t shirt and shorts before stuffing her feet into some tennis shoes that Ben was pretty sure were not hers. "Where are you going?"

"Out," Was all Rey supplied. 

"Rey,"

"I need to clear my head," she said. That was probably code for, _I'm going to do something extremely stupid Ben, and you're not gonna stop me because I'm a big scary vampire and you're just a nerd who's live nineteen and a half years._ She closed the door behind her and Ben was left alone. 

* * *

Rey had been trying to get rid of the thought for hours. 

_Death comes in twos._

 Second incarnation of Kylo, maybe. A death. Her death. That's not that hard to put together, even an idiot like her could put that together. But that's not all it said. 

_Let things be, or He will take things into his own hands._

"Goddamn it," She hissed to herself. "You're letting people get to you again," She didn't want any of this to happen, if she could have went back in time she would have never gone into that dorm room. Rey stopped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath in through her nose before letting it all out. 

She walked back into the dorm room. 

"You okay,"

"Are we ever really okay, cupcake?"

"Uh, that's really nonspecific."

"Some times people just need a little fresh air, even vampires. I'm fine." She laid down in her bed, but turned so she could still see Ben. There was no doubt that the boy could see through her facade, but she put it on for her own comfort. 

"Do you know what the meaning of death comes in twos means?" 

"Two events that lead to a death, dopplegangers are often signs of death, I don't know though." She shrugged. "I think we should keep searching though, it might be a clue that makes more sense with different context." 

"Right," 

* * *

 Phasma burst in through the door, "You really have to start locking this thing," Rey hissed. 

"Why is she untied?"

"Uh, reasons." Was all Kylo managed to say, "Why are you here?"

"Why am I here? Because you haven't answered any of my texts for a week, I was worried." Ben flushed and Rey rolled her eyes, gagged, and then got up from her bed. 

"Tell me when you two assholes are done acting like dicks," she was gone again. Ben sighed. 

"Well I guess you can help me research and all that shit," 

"Was there something going on between you and emo vampire?"

"Huh? No. No. Not at all." He dismissed the thought, but she wasn't very convinced. "Uh, we found these symbols, it says death comes in two, and uh.. Yeah..."

"Real specific, Ben."

"Yeah I know, I'm the most articulate person ever."

 "Let's get started then, shall we?"

"We shall."

* * *

 

Rey had had enough, and she had enough alcohol in her stomach to find the courage to go up to Hux in broad day light and deck him with a textbook she had stolen from Ben when he wasn't looking. The other vampire crumpled into a heap as he fell down the stairs. 

She jumped down the stairs after him, grabbing him pushing him up against the wall. "Someone must be very happy to see me."

"That was uncalled for,"

"Actually it was called for, a little warning to stay out of our way from Him. I know that you don't want your little virgin Mary to die, despite that apathetic attitude you continue to have."

"If you go near either of us again, I will rip out your own waste from your body and make you eat it."

"Nice threat, but we both know it isn't true. Stay on the right side, sweetheart. And you won't be subject to Purgatory quite yet."

* * *

There are some things that are essential when researching vampires and evil plots of death. Coffee being one of them. Enough coffee to be heart attack enducing. 

 Cookies. Cookies too. 

God, Ben was starving. 

"Earth to Ben," Phasma shouted. 

"Huh, oh... What?"

"We have nothing, I'm going to leave. I have an event I have to prepare for tomorrow for the Summer Society and I want to at least get a few hours of sleep." Ben nodded and told her goodbye, but made no moves after that. It wasn't long until the door opened again and Rey strolled through, her hands were bloody and she carried a bag of take out in her hands. She threw it on Ben's desk. 

"Oh my god I love you,"  _Damn it._ "I mean thanks for bringing me food, I'm starving... Speaking of food, did you murder someone to give me this?" At this point he didn't really care. 

"I wish," she said. "I threw Hux down the stairs a couple of times if you were wondering. It was payback to say the least."

"Well, you have to be careful with that... I mean if he's involved with the disappearances of the college kids, what if he does something to you..."

"That's cute," Rey said. "Anyways, I'll be fine. I was the one who turned him anyway, and he knows if he pushes my buttons I'll kill him, simple as that." Ben dug into the chinese takeout she gave him and started chowing down on egg rolls. 

"Oh!"

"What?"

"Hux is obviously involved with the missing people,"

"Yeah so?"

"I'm so fucking stupid. We need to follow him." It looked like Rey didn't like the idea of that, because she did that same weirdly apathetic sigh and fell on her bed. "I mean, he seems fairly stupid. He should be pretty easy to tail."

"Fine." She said. "But not tonight, tailing a vampire at night is the stupidest idea on Earth."

"Tomorrow,"

"Tomorrow."

"And you'll help?"

"You'd be killed otherwise."


	6. Chapter Six: Blood, Human Sacrifice, and Stalking

"You really have a problem with alcoholism, don't you?"

"I don't like this plan."

"Well, it's the only one we have."

  
"Why couldn't we just restrain him and starve him like you did me?"

  
"Because we'd inevitably have to kill him and no matter how much of an ass he is I'd rather not have to do that."

  
"Your sense of morality is that of a child," Ben rolled his eyes and took the bottle of champagne she'd been chugging away from her. 

"Come on," He said. 

"Well you're not going to be the one going?"

"What?"

"If you did, you would get yourself killed, and then who would I have to annoy? Blondie? She'd kill me on sight and say that it was my fault that you died." She got up and grabbed her leather jacket, heading for the door.

"So glad to hear you care?"

"Uh huh,"

She closed the door behind her before they could talk anymore.

* * *

 

Following Hux was easier than expected, “He really is more of an idiot than I give him credit for.” Rey seethed. The ginger was almost _too easy_ to tail. At first, Rey thought he was being purposefully mundane because he knew that she was following him, but the more she tailed him the more she realized that that wasn’t the case at all. He had bought a few Monster energy drinks, stopped for some blood at the student hospital, and headed out to the old library. “Shit,” The library was not exactly the most pleasant place to be. Especially when it randomly gained sentience and tried to kill people inside it.

For a second, she lingered outside, thinking of what bullshit she could tell Ben to get out of following him any further. Then she thought of his stupid face. Those disappointed puppy dog eyes. "I hate myself,"

She snuck into the library after Hux, making sure to stay as close to the door as possible so she could make a quick escape. Rey could easily see him grab a book from the Occult section of the library, take a few pages from it, and start walking back towards the library entrance with the book in his hand. 

The library didn't like that. The walls groaned and the bookshelves shuddered. Rey was lucky to dodge an onslaught of books falling off of shelves. Hux cursed and started running. Rey had to keep from laughing at the sight of the idiot being attacked by various books as he tried to get out of the library. At the entrance, Rey waited. She put her foot out and he tripped, dropping the book. Rey grabbed it and preceeded to make herself scarce. 

* * *

 

"So, it's been several hours since Rey started tailing Hux and she hasn't responded to my texts." Ben told the camera, "I don't know if she went to get drunk instead or if she's in trouble or what-" The door opened and Rey came into the room quietly, placing a book on Ben's lap silently and going to lay down om her bed. "What's this?"

"A book of rituals, magical weaponry, etc." Rey mumbled. "Don't bother trying to read it, it's all Sumerian." 

"Where did you get this?"

"The library, stole it from Hux."

"You went in the library by yourself?"

"I know, how stupid of me right? Now go to bed, cupcake."

"Wait, you have to tell me what happened."

"Tomorrow night," she promised, "I'm too tired for all this fucked up shit right now." 

"Okay fine,"

* * *

 

Rey had slept through the most of the day. Ben knew that she was dead, but he didn't think she would sleep like that through Phasma's coming over. 

They tried to decipher some of the book that Rey had stolen from Hux, but ended up not going very far. "Who the fuck knows Sumerian?" 

"None of these online transilators are helping at all." 

Two more hours, they'd figured out the word sword and the word god. Not much else. Both of them gave up, they had classes to attend to anyways. It wasn't until one o clock in the morning that Rey woke up. She yawned, stretched and turned over. "What year is it?" She asked sleepily. 

"Same year. New day."

"Ah, and it's also one in the morning. What are you still doing awake?"

Ben was looking down at the book she got. "Trying to figure all this shit out," He said. "Waiting for you, because you were supposed to tell me what happened." She yawned, shaking her head. 

"I'm sorry, you should've woken me up." 

"It's fine," He said. He was still hopped up on coffee, and his anxiety was through the roof. "We just..." Rey got up, sitting in the chair next to him. 

"You need to calm down, dude. You're heart's beating too fast." Ben wanted ask why she knew that and then remembered,  _I'm a dumbass, she's a vampire._ "Anyways, the book that you're holding is a book on Ancient Sumerian rituals and summonings. Sword of Hoster, gods of light, Innanna, that kind of shit. Hux took out the pages on the chapter that started talking about this one god of light... like how to stop him or whatever. I think he was going to destroy the book but the library came alive, it attacked, and I got it." She seemed like she was holding something back. 

"How do you know all this shit about the book?" 

"I know Sumerian," 

" _Oh, well that explains it._ " He felt stupid for trying to translate it now. 

"I mean it's been a few hundred years since I've had to deal with the language but I remember some, I flipped through it and figured out some shit." 

"There's more isn't there?" 

She looked down at her feet, squirming awkwardly. "Is it that obvious?" 

"Yeah." 

Rey sighed, spinning around in her chair as she tried to avoid whatever she was going to say next. "I kept following Hux... but then He intervened. For the first time in a while." She looked like she was going to cry, or throw up, or both. "Short story was that it was painful, and I was scared. But I'm fine now, I just don't have much else to tell you." She was sugar coating it, a lot. And it wasn't that hard to tell either. 

* * *

 

"I'm sorry," 

"Don't be, cupcake." 

"Are you okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm fine." 

But she wasn't fine, Ben wanted to give her a hug or something, but he didn't know exactly how that would go. The two of them sat there for a while before Ben asked, "Hey, uh, you don't have to answer this question... it's whatever but I was just thinking, do you have any happy memories?" Rey laughed at that question. 

"Why are you asking me that? Trying to keep me from being depressed?" 

"I just... I mean... You've gotta have some pretty cool stories I mean you've lived for a really long time so..."

"Oh so now you're calling me old?" 

 _Shit, he walked right in to that one._ "No that's not what I meant, all I'm saying is that-" 

"Calm down, I know what you meant." She said. "And I mean yeah, the most of them I had with Kylo. Stories I've never told to anyone else," Rey paused for a second, wondering if Ben was really trustworthy enough with that information. It didn't take long before she thought,  _Yes. Yes he is._ Benjamin Solo listened to her sad story and didn't shy away from her when he knew that she'd done some truly awful things in her past. He was a second chance. "Most of them were dancing," She giggled. 

"Dancing?" 

"What?" 

"You just don't seem like the type of person who would like that kind of stuff," He explained. 

"Oh, maybe not now, when all anyone can do is look at their phones and get piss drunk off of cheap beers, and danced to trashy music. I used to waltz all the time. The first time I waltzed was with Kylo, it was our second meeting, and we were both at a masquerade." 

"So that's what the kids did back in the late 1600s?" 

"To be honest, it wasn't that different to  _slow dancing_ now, although we did drink more expensive things and worried more about fine art and literature, but we danced all the same. Waltzing was fun. It had a... resounding scandal back then." 

"How is waltzing scandalous?" 

Rey laughed, "Well." She pulled Ben up out of his chair and Ben became increasingly nervous of how close the two of them were together. "Partners were face to face," He was towering over her but he still felt her leading, "Chest to chest. All of that uh..." Rey awkwardly twirled Ben and the two of them laughed. "Whirling," Their eyes met and Ben had to do everything in his power not to keep the bloodflow from not heading down south. "Back then it might as well have been sex." The two of them stayed like that for a second, until Ben broke it off. 

"Well, I guess you're right. I can see why you liked doing that so much." He was trying not to blush. 

"Forgive me, that was stupid." She walked back to her bed. "I know you were only trying to distract me, and I like that you were humouring me but... I shouldn't have done that." 

"Don't be sorry, I liked that." 

"Right," Rey said. "Go to sleep, Ben. God knows you need it." 

* * *

 

When Ben woke up, Rey had made a mess in the room. "Woah, what the frilly hell is this?" He said, looking at all the papers and articles were scattered all over his floor.

"Be quiet, Solo. I'm busy."

"You made a fucking mess, Rey." Rey was looking at the book that she'd stolen from Hux, and as Ben started picking up random papers and articles, he realized that she had spent time going through the book and translating what she thought needed to be translated. 

"Clean it up if you feel so inclined, also Finn is about to walk through the door in one... two... three..." Finn walked through the door, and he looked rather worried about something.  He pulled a few pieces of paper out of his jacket. "Were you followed?" She asked. 

"No," 

"Good, you did what I needed you to do. Now do yourself a favor and burn some sage in your room, also hang a garlic wreath over the door. Make sure you carry holy water and expect that Hux is going to be really fucking pissed that you stole something from him." It was still too early for Ben to follow what was going on, but Finn was gone before he could ask the boy what happened. He looked like he had been scarred for life. Rey didn't seem to care, she was too busy looking at the pages that she'd just received. Sipping something that looked like blood infused with coffee. "Okay fuck, that's not good at all." 

"What?" 

"The missing people," She said, "they're sacrifices to a demon god." 

 


	7. Chapter Seven: Sacrifices to A Demon God? Really?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter is shorter than usual, don't worry, the next chapter will be a lot longer.

"What do you mean human sacrifices to a demon god?" Ben never thought he'd be saying that when he started this investigation, but he was so tired that he couldn't even question it anymore. 

"I mean sacrifices to appease a god that would tear apart the world if he doesn't have twenty three men and women as sacrifices each year. That's literally what I'm looking at right now," Rey looked like she was going to throw up, again. "That's what I was giving those people to, that's what Kylo's fate was." 

"Rey, that wasn't your fault." Rey dropped the book, turning away from Ben. 

"Yeah it was," She groaned. "But it's fine. It's all fine." The girl handed Ben another piece of paper she had scribbled translations over. 

" _The sword of Hoster can vanquish the gods,_ " He read aloud, he looked down, reading more of the passage that she had translated. "Well that's great except... The sword is in cave in the deepest part of the ocean guarded by an angry crab." She put her feet up in Ben's chair. 

"Yeah, that doesn't really matter." She said nonchalantly. 

"What do you mean that doesn't really matter?"

"I can get it if you want me to,"

"Really?"

"Sure, why not?" Ben couldn't believe it was that easy. 

"Cool. I'll go get it tomorrow," 

* * *

Rey knew that Hux was coming, and he hoped it wasn't the one time she went to go get pizza for her and Ben while he stuck his nose in a book.

 She was halfway back to the dorm room when she heard it. 

Heard  _Him._ His whispering in the darkest corners of the school. At first she ignored it, walking back to the dorm rooms as fast as possible. 

Ben was probably in trouble. 

This was a distraction, and it wasn't even cleverly disguised. 

Then that's when she heard it. An ear splitting ring that brought her to her knees. She dropped the pizza as He made himself known, ' _Don't think I haven't seen what you're up to. There will be consequences.'_

* * *

 

"So apparently the missing people are human sacrifices," Ben told the camera. "Great. I know," He picked up his coffee and took a sip. "But we have a plan, a plan that we can't exactly reveal yet because there's a chance that this is being watched by someone who's on the side of the angry demon god, but don't worry. We'll fill you guys in soon.." He got distracted by the sight of a red necklace that was left on his desk. 

"Oh it looks like Rey left her jewelry here," He picked it up to move it back to her jewelry box, but the chain burned. "Fu-" Ben could feel his eyes closing, darkness seeping in. There was nothing he could do to stop it.

* * *

 

"Hey, are you okay?" It was Finn. He offered a hand to her and she pulled herself up, still dizzy. She was about to bend back down and get the pizza but the boy had already gotten it for her. 

"I'm... We need to get to Ben."

"What's wrong?"

"Hux." That was enough to get her food dropped again, and the two of them started running back to her dorm room. Before Finn could enter Rey pushed him back. "Go home,"

"But-"

"I don't want to be responsible for a death I could avoid, now  _go home._ " He did as she asked and Rey kicked the door open. 

Rey kicked the door down, and was immediately ambushed. Hux pushed her onto the bed, his hands wrapped around her neck. “Stand down,” A voice said. Ben’s voice, but there was something wrong about it. Hux did. Rey didn’t try to get up again. “It’s been a long time since we’ve really gotten a chance to talk.” _He_ said.

 

“You call possessing an innocent civilian to threaten me talking?” She spat.

 

“Watch your tongue, child.” Rey couldn’t look up at Ben. She didn’t want to think about what was happening in his head right now. “Now listen carefully, I’m here to offer you a deal.”

 

“No,”

 

“You haven’t heard it yet,” He said. “Who knows, you might actually like it.” Rey kept her mouth shut. _He was clever, if he’d possessed anyone else she would have ripped them to shreds._ “It’s rather simple, actually. You stop poking into the business of your superiors and get your little virgin to do the same and I’ll let you keep him for the rest of his pathetic little life. The both of you will be granted safety from harm.” That sounded too good to be true. Besides, he never kept his word. Rey looked to Hux, and then back to the ground. “You have to choose now,”

 

“If I say yes, you’ll leave him alone?” She felt like crying. She’d already lost Kylo… _I shouldn’t let my feelings get in the way of what’s at hand,_ Rey thought to herself.

 

“Yes.”

 

She shouldn’t.

 

She was too weak. “Fine. Just let him go.” He let out a laugh that Rey had always wanted to forget, and Hux left the room again. Rey looked up at Ben, watching his eyes roll to the back of his head, and his body start to drop. The girl picked him up, dragging him over to his seat. It only took him a few minutes to wake up.

 

“What happened?” Rey tried to smile like nothing happened, giving him a piece of pizza from the box that she’d dropped outside of the dorm rooms beforehand.

 

“I’m guessing, since you’re such a nerd, you forgot to eat and passed out. I put you on the bed.” She shrugged. “So eat.” Ben nodded like that made enough sense for him, and did as she told him to. The two of them sat in silence for a minute as Rey watched him. _God, what’s wrong with me?_ She thought to herself, _it was just a few fucking weeks ago that we hated each other._ Things were easier that way.

* * *

 

 

Ben couldn’t believe how ridiculous he was being. Rey and him were just hanging around and he kept finding himself staring at her. She was completely oblivious for the most part. Absent mindedly reading a book, or eating one of the leftover pieces of pizza. “Hey I'm gonna go,” She said. “I'll be back in about three to four minutes.” With no explanation, she left. 

 

_ Worst crush, ever. _

 

Ben was too tired to do anything. He laid back in his bed, listening to music and pretending that a bunch of people weren't going to be sacrificed to an angry demon god. Rey came back like she promised she would. “Hey.” She poked him. He looked up to see her with a bag of various movies in one hand, and a bag of blood that she was sipping on in the other.  She threw the bag of movies on his bed. “Pick one, we could both use a break.” 

 

The both of them sat in rolling chairs, separate from each other, but Ben kept feeling Rey roll back and forth, her hand lightly brushing his occasionally. They’d both agreed on Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn, but neither of them focused on the movie. Rey leaned her head on Ben's shoulder and he nearly had a heart attack. “You okay?” 

 

“Yeah,” She said. He wasn't stupid though. There was something bothering her. “Just tired,”

“Well you can go to bed,” 

 

“No. I'll just stay here.”

 

“Okay,” They let the movie play until the credits run. 

 

“Ben?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Can I tell you something?”

 

“Sure, what do you want to tell me?”

 

“I haven't told you this yet, but I'm… I can't get it out of my head.” She pushed herself back in her chair, her head no longer on his shoulder. “I keep having a dream, a dream about the day Kylo was taken away from me, and I realized, I don't want the thing that happened to him to happen to you.” Ben wasn't sure about how he should respond to that. “I mean, we're not the best of friends or whatever, you probably still think I'm somewhat annoying and don't really care what happens to me. I just can't help but feel like I want you to be safe.”

 

“And everyone else,”

 

“Sure. Them too.”  

 

“I want you to be safe too. And happy. I'm flattered that you're worried about me but there's nothing to worry about. We'll be fine.” It seemed like clockwork, Ben said that he'd be fine, and then something went wrong.  

  
Finn burst through the door in a hysterical panic, at first it was hard to get something out of him until he said, “Poe. They took Poe.”


	8. Chapter Eight: Sorry, Our Protagonist is Emotionally Distant At The Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "My hopes, they are high, I must keep them small."--Fools, Troye Sivan  
> "I like to keep some things to myself..."--Shake It Out, Florence and The Machine

Rey knew what was doomed to happen, what was always doomed to happen. They were taunting her, telling her that she couldn't stop them from taking the ones that she loved. Not without making herself look like a monster of sorts. 

She had to stop herself from saying anything, trying to think of the best thing to do in this situation. She said nothing. She did nothing. There should have something to say that would have kept him from putting himself in danger. Something she could have said that wouldn't turn him against her. Something that would keep him from leaving her. 

Rey thought of no such thing. 

She just froze.  _Idiot,_ the girl thought to herself. "Rey," Ben's voice cut through her like a knife. She couldn't speak, she couldn't think, she couldn't move. Her eyes moved up to Finn, who was about to say something, but stopped when they made eye contact. "Rey, what's wrong?" She felt like she hadn't eaten in days. Her muscles were weak, her mind even weaker. She blinked twice, trying to find her ability to speak. 

"I- I need to leave." She said. 

"What?" Rey got up, stumbling past both Finn and Ben. She nearly tripped and Ben grabbed her, trying to help her up. "Rey, tell me what's going on." 

"Don't touch me," She hissed.

 "Rey-" he let go of her at request, and she ran out of the room as best as she could. 

* * *

 

_"Rey?" Kylo had been sick for several days, chained to the cage that Rey had been forced into. She moved closer to him, the muzzle he'd put around her mouth when He was controlling him prevented her from talking. "Rey?" The girl nudged at his hand, trying to let him know she was listening. Kylo hadn't been able to keep a clear train of thought since he'd fallen sick, "I need to say something, because I know something bad..." He trailed off, staring off into the bonfire a few yards away for a good ten minutes, "... Something bad is about to happen, I know. I have to," His breathing was irregular, heart beat worse. "It's not your fault," He said. "I was scared, I didn't understand what you are. I-I think I know you would never hurt someone on purpose unless you were desparate." Oh but she had hurt people, she had done it so many times too. "It's okay. It's going to be okay." And with that, he jerked up, shouting loudly before passing out. Guards took him away, and Rey never saw him again._

* * *

Ben didn't know why Rey was so freaked out, why she left, and why she wasn't back yet. Finn seemed to know something, but when Ben had asked him if he knew something, the boy avoided the question all together. 

They instead went over the incident of Poe's disappearance. Finn had explained that they were both rather anxious about the prospect of other vampires a lot less friendlier than Rey coming to mess around with them, so they began a rather long and convoluted way of warding their dorm rooms, and as they were in the middle of that process, a ginger vampire had broken into the room, grabbed Poe by the back of his collar, and dragged him out of the room before Finn could follow. 

"They're being a lot messier than they have been before," Ben said to himself. 

"It was awful,"

"Hey, don't worry. We'll find Poe."

"What if... what if he's.."

"No, he isn't dead."

"How do you know that?" Ben didn't want to tell him that the reason he knew Poe was alive was because he was going to be a live human sacrifice, because that would only freak him out more, so he just said, "I don't. But there's always hope."

* * *

 

Rey couldn't remember what it was like to live without pain. She felt like she got so close when she started to get close to Ben, but then it had been ripped from her grasp, like it had been so many times. 

Was even a year without pain too much to ask? Rey tried to forget this thought as she entered the student hospital, grabbing a box of blood bags and heading to a janitor's closet before closing the door and biting into one of them with no remorse. 

Pain was inevitable. 

Pain meant living, but she was dead, so why couldn't she just have paradise for once?

She sucked the first bag dry, moving onto the second. 

Pain. Pain. Pain. 

Kylo was her fault. 

She'd lied to him, he found out the truth, he suffered the ultimate price for it. 

She lied to Ben, he would ultimately find out the truth, and then suffer the ultimate price for it. Why this sick cyclical pattern kept repeating itself, Rey would never know. 

She'd be better off in Oblivion. Not existing on any plane. That would be better for her. For everyone. She sucked the second bag dry, moving onto the third. God, how pathetic she was. Rey could feel her head pounding with the rush of sudden energy that the blood provided her. Her head wasn't the only thing that was pounding, she seemed to forget that her sexual drive some times increased with every time she fed. She could feel it now. 

Thoughts about him, creeping into her head. She knew that she shouldn't think about Ben that way, but it was better than thinking about all the times that she had messed up. She sucked the third dry, moving to the fourth. 

At the moment, she had no intention of stopping. 

* * *

 

Ben had no idea where to start, no idea what to do, he could feel his mind start to shut down as he looked at what little evidence he had. He considered playing back the camera footage and editing it to request help from the internet, but ultimately felt too tired to do that. 

Before long, Rey had magically appeared in the room. "You look like you need a break," She was slurring her words, stumbling even worse than she had been before, she carried a bottle of Merlot in her hand. "Want a drink?" Ben didn't know what to say, but accepting it when she gave him the bottle, taking a hardy swig of the alcohol. Rey threw her shoes off and leaned back in her bed. 

"What happened earlier?" Was the first thing that Ben asked. 

"With the... Me walking out?" Rey hiccuped. "Hungry... Didn't want to bite you."  _Oh._ He felt stupid for thinking there might have been something more going on. "Sorry that was rude, wasn't it?" She got back up, watching Ben in his seat. Ben was concerned that this wasn't the only bottle of Merlot that she had. 

"Rey.. Uh... Are you okay?" Ben asked. Rey hiccuped. 

"Okay as ever," Her voice was high pitched, like a stereotypical character in a comedy when they were lying. 

"You know you can tell me when something is bothering you. You know that right?" He put his hand on her thigh, obviously not thinking about it. The girl's eyes widened, like she was about to panic, as she looked back into his eyes. They were both so close to each other, his warm skin on her cold leg. 

"I can't tell you," She said. There were tears in her eyes as she tried to avoid his gaze. She grabbed his hand, tracing her thumb against the back of his palm. "I just... it's kind of humiliating." Rey told him. Ben got up and moved to her bed, grabbing the girl by the waist and pulling her in for a hug. 

"Okay. That's fine. It's all fine." He couldn't but help but feel his heart drop as he pulled her in, feeling like he was falling deeper. He wondered if she felt the same or not. "It'll be fine."

* * *

 

It had been four days since Rey had freaked out on Ben and she hadn't done it again. She returned to somewhat of her brisk nature, witty reparté, sarcastic and hostile retorts. 

She practically stopped working with any one all together. In reality, the girl didn't want this. She didn't want any of this. But it impeded their ability to get into messes that would get them killed. 

There were some times where she would say things she didn't mean, knowing there would be a disappointed look in Ben's eyes, and every time she felt something stab at her. 

She'd gotten used to it before, emotionally withdrawing from everything was a coping mechanism she had gotten used to using, and in this situation, it was keeping Ben from certain death, so she would continue to do it as long as it benefited her selfish agenda.

Everything would be okay this way. 

It could work until she found a new plan. 

* * *

 

When Rey was away, Ben remembered that he had to review the footage that his webcam had recorded so he could put it up on the Coruscant ethernet so internet sleuths aspiring to earn a forensics degree could help him.

Bad mistake. 

While he was absent mindedly surfing through the hours of footage, he had found something from when Rey said he had randomly passed out. Something she hadn't told him before. "If you keep him out of our business, I'll let you keep him." He almost laughed. Rey would never agree to something like that, would she? She did. Oh. 

At first, Ben wasn't sure what he should do. In a way, he knew that Rey was only doing this to protect him. They were friends. Friends protected friends. Another feeling kept nagging at him though. 

She'd lied to him. She did several times, just for her own selfish purpose. He looked back at the girl's empty bed. "Why?" He muttered. There was no ome to tell him why, no one was going to tell him what to do. 

He hated it. _God, some things were easier when I hated her._ It seemed that time wasn’t on his side because Rey walked through the door as he was looking through the footage. She froze. “Shit,” Ben didn’t know what to say, so he blurted the first thing that came out of his head.

 

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

 

“Ben, I can explain-” That just pissed him off more.

  
“No, Rey. Don’t. You lied to me,” 

“I did it to protect you,” She said.

  
“Yeah, and now Poe’s missing.” He should’ve stopped there. “Not only that but you refused to help when you knew that information,” Ben couldn’t even look her in the eye. “I thought that you were better than that.” They were both silent for what felt like forever.

 

Finally, Rey spoke. “Guess the joke’s on you then, I’ve been a shitty person for a while.”

 

“Just go Rey,”

 

“What?”

 

“Go. I don’t want to talk to you right now.” The girl laughed, heading over to her side of the room to grab her bag.

  
“Okay, cupcake. I’ll go, but the next time you’re going to die and you need saving, don’t expect me to run to your aid immediately.” Ben said nothing, and she left. 

She just left.

 

Rey didn’t know what to do. She didn’t have anywhere to sleep and she knew that if she went back to that dorm something bad was going to happen, she ended up in the same broom closet she’d been in the night before, putting her bag on the floor to serve as a makeshift pillow. “I suck,” She told herself. “I’m a fucking idiot.” She closed her eyes, trying to forget everything that had just happened.

Part of her knew that she should go back. Apologize to Ben before he did something stupid. Ultimately she knew she was too much of a coward to do that. Instead, she just stayed in the back of the broom closet and cried. Everything she had ever done was wrong, it was always wrong.

 

There was nothing she could do, even in her few centuries of living, that seemed to keep her from screwing up and losing people. She would lose Ben too. She would lose him and be alone again, and although she hadn’t known him as long as she knew Kylo before she lost him, this made her feel worse. Maybe it was because Ben was more radiant than Kylo could have ever been, maybe it was because even when Ben was mad at her, he didn’t treat her as if she was an absolute monster deserving of being caged up.

 

Rey’s wave of sadness was replaced by a wave of anger.

  
There was one person who had continuously caused her grief as of late, and that was Hux. For a second, Rey stayed laying down, doing nothing. But she got up, wiping the tears from her face and taking a deep breath. 

She was going to kill him. 

She didn't care if it helped her or not. 

Armitage Hux was going to die, and she was going to savor every last moment of it. 

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Phasma shouted.  "You idiots let Poe get captured to be sacrificed to some demon god, our only hope of defeating this demon god is a sword that humans can't reach, and you had a fight with the only supernatural being on our side that has any hope of reaching the sword?"       

"When you put it that way..." Finn said. Ben began tuning them out. He'd fucked up, big time. That sword sucked out the life of the user, and it was also their only hope. The thing Rey promised she was going to get. The thing Rey had said she was going to get.  _I’ll go, but the next time you’re going to die and you need saving, don’t expect me to run to your aid immediately._  Her voice rang through his head over and over again. 

_"Ben,"_

"Huh?"

 _"_ What are we going to do? _" How was he supposed to know?_

"We need to find out when and where the sacrifice is taking place... Maybe we can take them in numbers." That sounded like absolute bullshit, but they seemed to buy it. 

* * *

 

Rey had successfully distracted herself with stalking Hux to another bonfire party when she decided to make her move. Hux was making his move on a girl, presumably to use her for human sacrifice. Rey was tempted to kill him now when a morbid realization came to mind. She could follow him back to wherever they were keeping everyone else.

So she waited, following the two after he'd knocked the poor girl out. It was fairly easy to follow Hux without being seen or heard, there were no people, no branches or anything that could give her position away. They were going to an abandoned choir house that had been burned down back in the fifties. They were about to go inside when Rey attacked. She pushed him as hard as she could and the girl fell to the ground. He got up. "That's not fair." She didn't say anything, and when he pounced she grabbed him by the neck, feeling extreme pleasure when she heard it snap. 

She pushed the girl into a bush where she wouldn't be seen and walked into the choir house. If she was careful, she might be able to find Poe. 

* * *

 

"Hey, Rey. This is Ben. I-I'm sorry okay, I just need you to come back. I don't know if you're hurt or in trouble, but I'm worried about you. We can talk about this whenever you come back. Please just come back." That was the fifth voice message Ben had left in the past hour. 

"She's not gonna, " Phasma said. "If there's one thing I know about that crazy bitch it's that when her feelings are hurt, she gets really stubborn." Phasma was right, still Ben felt like he had to try. "Maybe you should help us get ready instead." Phasma was making a variance of stakes and other weapons to kill vampires instead. 

"We don't even know when their going to make the sacrifice,"

"Actually we do," Finn had been looking at his phone, but now he got up, nervous. "And it's next week."


	9. Chapter Nine: We're All Doomed To Hell, Aren't We?

“Rey, please answer your phone. I know that I shouldn’t have said what I said and I’m really sorry. But you’ve been gone for a day and you’re scaring me. I know you’re upset, just please come home so I know that you’re safe.” This was the twelfth message he had sent her, and still there was no response back from Rey. Each time he checked his phone, his anxiety spiked a little. _Why wasn’t she responding?_ He knew that she was upset, but surely if she had seen and heard all of his messages she would’ve come back, wouldn’t she. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Ben’s heart jumped a little, hoping to god that it was Rey.

It was Poe. He was half unconscious and bloody but he stood there, and waved. “Uh, h-hey man.” He slurred.

“Do me a favor and- get me a trashcan- I think I might-” Before he could finish that sentence, he threw up.

* * *

 

Rey had broken her phone back in the choir house when she was sneaking Poe out of the back. Luckily, no one had saw her. She had snuck him back to the entrance to the dorm rooms, but Rey didn’t have the courage to go back. Not quite yet. She had something else to do. _The Sword of Hoster, the soul sucking blade no one could reach,_ Rey was going to get it. Before she had set out to the seaside she stole a blanket from the student hospital.  

She didn’t know if she would be able to actually find the sword, the sea was a vast place that was impossible for even a vampire to search for a weapon, but for once she actually had hope that she would be able to find it. She’d wrap the sword in a blanket, rendering it inactive until she needed to use it.

“I won’t let you down,” Rey said aloud. Of course, there was no one there, she spoke out to the air. Still, part of her felt like she was closer to Kylo. Closer to Ben. After this was done, Ben would still be alive and she would get some well deserved rest.

_Rest? You’d be dead._

* * *

 

Poe had been out for the past three hours, and Finn was sitting next to him crying. There was only one way that Poe could’ve gotten out of his captor’s hold alive, and that was Rey. _If Rey had gotten him out, why hadn’t she come back?_ Poe coughed, his eyes fluttering open. “Hey,” Finn nearly knocked him over again as the boy tried to sit up.

“Sorry,”

“Nah, it’s okay. Why are you crying though? I’m okay.” His sentences were broken and slurred. When everything quieted down, Ben asked,

“How did you get out?”

One perk about being a vampire was not having your lungs crushed the second you were so far below sea level that you couldn’t see the surface. Also being able to see this far underwater. She moved as fast as she could.

Deep sea merfolk were not the most polite people either, Rey had only just narrowly avoided being speared to death by a hostile group of mermen that knew she wanted the sword.

Rey couldn’t wait for this to be over.

Poe was having difficulty making sense, and Ben reckoned that the same thing that was happening to Kylo was happening to Poe. They didn’t have long if that was the case. Poe was able to tell them that Rey was in fact the one who had rescued him. She had broken her phone at the choir house, and said she was going to get some sword. The sword of Hoster. She would die if she used that.

Ben felt a stinging pain in his chest just thinking about it. Three days… Three days and he hadn’t seen her at all, her hadn’t been able to say that he forgave her, or that he felt like she was a lot more than a friend to him. He called Phasma again.

They had to get ready.

* * *

 

When Rey got back on land she nearly threw up. Although she’d wrapped the sword up in a blanket, she could feel it leeching off the living things around it. She breathed in a breath of fresh air. She closed her eyes, feeling something warm inside of her. _You’re going to die, Rey. You shouldn’t be happy about it._ That wasn’t exactly it. Rey had been scared, scared out of her mind. She had been living without a purpose for so long, but she felt like maybe she had one.

She let the wind and sea mist wash over her skin for a few minutes before she opened her eyes and got up. _Make peace with yourself, your time is coming and it will not be kind._

She had made peace with herself.

She was ready to go back and help Ben, and say farewell. In the end, maybe it would be enough, maybe that farewell would make those three hundred years that were pure hell worth it.

They say when you’re about to die, you can hear bells ringing. Ben wished that he heard something. Instead he couldn’t help but feel like he was falling. Something kept making him feel nauseous. He turned on his camera one last time as Finn and Phasma got ready in the background. Poe was chained to the bed by a handcuff.

“So this is for whoever’s watching.” He sighed.

“Uh, actually this is mostly just a message for Rey, but anyone who has the ability to help, please feel free. Rey, I wish that we had more time, but we don’t, and you haven’t come back. So if you even survived getting that sword and you see this, just know that-” There was a lump in his throat. “-you know what. Damn it. Any ways the Summer Society and the Alchemy Club are going to get ready to fight. Goodbye, this is probably going to be our last video.” He uploaded the video and sighed. “Let’s go.”

* * *

 

 

Rey finished the video, her head in her hands. “Why?” She wished that she had been able to get back here faster. “You idiot,” They were all going to die. Every single last one of them. Rey looked outside to see a light blooming from the darkness like a tulip, pulsating and calming in a way.

She shook her head able to keep the hypnosis from entering her mind. Rey grabbed the sword of Hoster, feeling a burning sensation creep up her arm and into her heart.

Rey was going to kill the Dean.

She was going to kill that stupid demon god, but most of all, she would eviscerate anyone who hurt Ben.

* * *

 

Ben knew that he was stupidly, irrationally afraid of dying. He didn’t want to be afraid of dying. He was mortal and it was inevitable. Still, he was terrified out of his mind as a large abundance of students marched towards the abandoned choir house.

There were so many things that he hadn’t done yet that he still wanted to do.

Ben gripped the end of the wooden stake, trying to shake these thoughts from his head. They were about to charge the choir house. No one had come out to meet them, which Ben found rather odd. They should expect some sort of ambush.

* * *

 

When Rey first met Kylo Ren, she had just stopped waltzing for the night and was out on the balcony, slightly drunk. At first, she saw him as a dead man walking. He was such a moralistic prick, but somehow he grabbed onto her heart and took it.

When Rey first met Ben, she saw the same dead man walking, except she had been determined to not get attached this time. How well that had gone for her. She kept falling for the same person, and they kept dying on her watch. This time Rey wasn’t going to let him die. Rey knew that she could get there, that she can save him in time. She ran into the light with no hesitation. There was only one thought on her mind.  _Save Ben Solo._

The vampire knew that she had to be strategic about the way she entered the choir house. The place was crawling with vampires and despite having a soul sucking sword that can never fail in it’s attack, she still wanted the element of surprise. She was quiet as she moved through the shadows, dragging vampires off into the distance before she decapitated them.

Once the coast was clear, she went inside. The inside of the abandoned choir house was a front for a large cave that lead to a pit, it seemed like half the student body was there, but she could see him in the crowd almost instantly. She knew his heart beat.

He was on the edge already.

* * *

 

Ben didn’t know what was happening, but he heard a shriek erupt through the cave, making rocks on the ceiling rumble and begin to loosen. The light was so strong, so enticing, but he looked back anyways to see what it was. A large mass of darkness was tearing through the crowd like a hurricane, barreling down on vampires that were herding people to the edge of the pit.

_ Rey?  _ Ben watched as a path was cleared for that large mass of darkness, that darkness that threw him away from the edge of the pit. It shifted into her. Blood was running down the side of her head and her arm, he didn’t know if it was hers or someone else’s. She winked at him and then looked to the side.

That was the first time he saw  _ Him,  _ an old decrepit vampire with eyes darker than anything Ben had ever seen before. “Child, you are out of your depth here.” He warned. Rey twirled the Sword in her hand with a sick grin on her face.

“Sorry, Dean, sir. But I think you’re the one who’s out of your depth.” With that, she attacked, sending the Dean into the pit seconds later. She looked so tired, the sword in her hand seemed to be eating away at her. Rey stepped closer to the edge and Ben yelled.

“Rey, no!” He ran towards her, but Phasma pinned him down to the ground.

“Sorry cupcake,” She shouted. “But this demon god isn’t gonna die on it’s own.” 

She was crying.

She jumped.

Rey jumped.

Ben elbowed Phasma and she got off of him. He ran to the edge to see if he could still see her. She was nowhere to be seen, the light that had filled up the cave slowly dimmed, and the demon god howled in pain. Ben watched in terror as the pit closed up behind Rey, and he was left alone.


	10. Chapter Ten: I Do It Just For You

Ben didn’t know what to do. There was no body left to bury, nothing left of Rey except for the stuff that she had left in his room. Phasma had done the official last episode and uploaded it to the web. Oddly enough, it nearly hit top ten trending on youtube. She called Rey a hero.

Rey would’ve laughed at that. Ben hadn’t had any courage to even go near her stuff, to pack it up yet. He left it all there. Mohr had come back though, for the time being. He only stopped by to tell Ben that he hadn’t even wanted to go to this school, get his stuff, and leave. So maybe he had accomplished something good. It’s what he set out to do anyway.

Rey was still dead.

She was still dead and there was nothing left for him to bury. Phasma had come over and tried to get him to eat. Unsuccessfully. All the muscles in his body still hurt, his brain still pounding, he wasn’t hungry. “Suit yourself.” She left. Ben didn’t blame her. He wasn’t exactly the most fun person to be around at the moment. Once people stopped trying to bother him, Ben set himself with the task of making some sort of memorial to her. It wasn’t much, the campus couldn’t really do much when it was trying to figure out how the hell to cover up a giant hole in their abandoned choir house, but he planted a growth of poppies near the oak tree outside his dorm room and carved her name into the tree.

Ben felt like she would’ve laughed at roses. _“Come on, cupcake. You’re not that cliche now are you?”_ She would say. He would say that in some ways,  yes, he was. Still the flowers felt right. It still bugged him that he couldn’t bury her body at least. There would never be any sort of closure.

He opened a bottle of champagne she had never finished almost a week after her death, poured two glasses, but only drank one. That night he had one dream. Out by the oak tree a figure in black was standing next to the tree, looking up at his window, Ben tried to ask the figure, “Is that you?” But there was no answer from the figure.

Ben woke up that night, sweaty, and tangled in his own sheets. He drank the second glass after that.

Two weeks later, and Ben turned on his camera for the first time in a while. “Hey, everyone. I know you guys want to know what else is happening and if I’m okay so, I’m gonna try and make this video as a recap to everything that had happened, so let’s go. We confronted the big bad evil that was plaguing the campus. Everyone is okay, everyone is acting normal and there’s been significantly less vampire sightings or any magical sightings at all on campus. I got an A minus on my journalism project, my teacher said that the whole saving the world and almost dying to get saved last minute by a vampire is sort of a cliche.” He sighed. “It’s whatever. Um, I’m not sure if I’m going to stay for the summer or not. I know that Phasma’s going home to visit family,” There was a loud explosion and a flash of light outside, but Ben paid no attention to it. “Poe and Finn are stayin-” It seemed like every single goddamn time that Ben mentioned Finn’s name, he would walk through the door.

This time was no different. “Oh hey, uh, you’re filming again. Good-” He looked behind him with a panicked look in his eyes. “Listen-”

“What’s happening?”

“I don’t want to freak you out man, but uh,”

“Move,” Phasma came through the door, holding someone in her arms. Holding Rey in her arms.

“Phasma was searching the pit to see if there’d been any survivors, she’d been searching ever since the incident, throwing home made explosives into the rubble with the alchemy club, and we found her.”

“She’s still breathing,” Phasma said, “So obviously she’s not dead.” She laid Rey on Ben’s bed.

“Yeah, obviously.” Ben was panicking. “She needs blood!” Her skin was grey, like it had been the time Ben had tied her up for weeks. Ben rushed to the fridge, where he still had that milk carton of blood that Rey had had what seemed like so long ago. He came back to Rey, opening her mouth. His heart was beating so hard that it hurt. He put the crimson liquid to her mouth and then gave the carton to Phasma, who gingerly put it back in the fridge. After a moment, he could see Rey swallow, and her eyes begin to flutter. “Oh god,” He whispered.

The girl groaned, gingerly sitting up on the bed. “Fuck,” She hissed. Ben couldn’t contain himself. He hugged her, nearly making her topple back over onto the bed. “Oh my god, you’re alive. Are you hurt? Did I hurt you? Sorry-” Ben pulled away from the hug.

“I’m fine.” She said. “ I appreciate the warm welcome but why the hell the warm welcome. I haven’t been gone that long, have I?”

“Two weeks,” Phasma said briskly. “He’s been absolutely miserable for two weeks.” Rey looked to Ben, her brows furrowed. He didn’t know what to say, what to do. Pinch himself, maybe? This seemed like a dream. Finn tapped Phasma’s shoulder and they left the room, leaving Rey and Ben alone.

“Two weeks?” She looked tired, weaker. Of course she would be weaker, she just came back from the dead.

“Yeah,” Rey almost smiles, and then winces. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just… just got back from the dead, you know? You don’t really get used to that sort of thing.”

Ben nodded. “Well take it easy okay,” He took a deep breath in. All the things he thought he would never get to say to Rey still in his head. “Listen, I need to tell you a few things.”

Ben nodded. “Well take it easy okay,” He took a deep breath in. All the things he thought he would never get to say to Rey still in his head. “Listen, I need to tell you a few things.” The smile fades from Rey’s lips. “I wanted to say I’m sorry-” 

“For what?” 

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you, you know? You were just trying to protect me and…” He trailed off in her head, “You saved everyone for the greater good in the end,” 

“Right, the greater good.” 

“Yeah and I… I really just want you to know that you’re really important to me.” Rey bit her lip, the smile returning to her lips. They stayed there for a minute, not really knowing what to do with each other. Then, Ben got an idea. Gingerly, he leaned over, placing his hand on her cheek.  _ God, what are you doing? You’ve never kissed anyone-  _ It seemed Rey was willing to meet him halfway. Their lips met, at first it wasn’t pretty, it was rough, and fast. But at some point they slowed down, and Ben could feel himself turning red. “Wow,”

“You’ve never kissed anyone before have you?” 

“Does it show?” 

“No… you’re just… blushing a lot.” Rey said. “Here, let me teach you.” She leaned in for another kiss, and for a second everything was right with the world. 


	11. Chapter Eleven: Ladies, Ben Solo is a Virgin

It had been two days since Rey had magically appeared from the dead, two days since Ben Solo had been kissed for the first time, and Rey had slept nearly the entire time. Ben knew that coming back from the dead must have been hard, but he hated it at the same time.

    Because while she was sleeping, he was left to thinking about that kiss. _Did that mean they were dating? Or was she just doing that to make him feel better?_ He wasn’t sure. He was startled by Rey yawning and turning over in her bed. She smiled sleepily at him, and he smiled back. _At least she’s looking better than she had when she came back,_ he thought. “Hey,” She said.

    “Hey, you’re up.” She nodded, still shrouded in her blankets.

    “Don’t wanna be though,”

    “Well you could go back to sleep if you’re still tired, I’d be fine.”

“There’s something missing.” She told him.

“Oh? What? Because if you need food, blood, or more blankets, I could get those to you-” She held out a hand, beckoning him to her bed. Ben blushed, realizing what she meant by that.

“Cuddle,”

“Really?”

“Hurry up. I'm getting grumpy.” Ben kicked off his shoes and jumped into bed next to her. She threw the blanket over him, and he brought her closer to him. “You're warm,” she giggled. “I like that,” Rey was undeniably cold, even colder than she had been before the pit. He couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

“Good, I guess.” He moved closer, closing his eyes as they lay there together.

“Your heart is beating really fast,”

“Sorry-” Rey turned over, her hazel eyes meeting his.

“What's wrong?” She asked. “And don't say nothing because there is something on your mind.” Ben nearly cursed under his breath.

“I really don't have much of a poker face, do I?” She shook her head no, her eyelids attempting to stay open. There was no point in lying. Ben could feel himself blushing as he thought of the right way to say it. “Listen… uh… this may just be because I'm really not good at these things, but I was thinking about that kiss, and _Iwanttoknowifwe’relikeathingnoworifyouwerejustkissingmetomakemefeelbetter_ either way, I'm fine. It's fine. It's all cool.” 

“Oh, boy.” Rey got up.

“What is there something wrong? You don't have to-” She groaned, and Ben got up with her.

“Listen, you worry way too much.” She said. “Because I thought that kiss made my feelings pretty clear.” Rey leaned forward again, kissing him. This time softer than the first,  and longer, he kissed back, trying not to pinch his arm in the process. She pulled back, but Ben wished she wouldn’t. “Does that answer the question?”

“I think I need another one,” Ben tried not to laugh, “Just for insurance, you know?” Rey giggled.

“Yeah, I think that I could manage that.” Another kiss and her hands were running through his hair. “You're really hot, you know that?” Damn it, Ben thought to himself. I'm so fucking stupid. He started blushing again. It went on like this for a while, just making out, before the both of them passed out in Rey's bed.

* * *

When Rey woke up, hunger stabbed at the side of her stomach. Quietly, she got up from the bed as to not disturb Ben, quickly looking down on him before she left. _God, he was so perfect…_ Every time she looked at him, it was as if she couldn’t breathe. _Maybe I should get that checked out._

Rey left as hurriedly as she could, her hunger panging at her. She ignored the temptation to attack a student and went out to the woods. She felt sorry for the first animal that she came across, but she was too hungry, so she didn’t think about it too much.

* * *

 

_It was cold and dark outside, and Kylo was practically shivering outside. Rey always pitied the human, so fragile. “Are you cold?” She asked._

_“No,” He lied. She raised an eyebrow, “Yes.”_

_“That’s what I thought,” she said. “You need to get inside,”_

_“I came out here because you were out here. You must be cold too,” Rey shook her head no. “You’ve got to be lying,”_

_“I’m used to it,” she told him. “Where I’m from it’s always cold… cold and dark,”_

_“That’s depressing,”_

_“Why? It’s just the weather.”_

_“I don’t know, it’s just the way you said it.” He shook his head, a hint of a smile on his face. “It sounded lonely, you know?”_

_“Like you would know what lonely is, Mister son of a wealthy duchess.”_

_“I think I’d know more about being lonely than you think,” He said, “It’s so frustrating, everyone just sort of puts on a front and no one tells the truth. It’s all just for monetary gain, nothing is for love.” Something pulled at Rey’s heartstrings as she looked at the boy. “No one is real,” With one move, he turned to her. “Dancing with you, it felt real, and I was wondering, if you had to leave tomorrow?”_

* * *

 

 

“Hey,” Rey had woken Ben up, giggling as she watched him walk up slowly and sleepily. “You’re cute,” She kissed his forehead and said, “Get dressed,”

“Where are we going?”

“Rebel With a Cause is playing at the Student Theatre in about four hours, and you've slept all day. We need pizza, an unhealthy amount of hot coco, and tickets. Get dressed.”

 

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t make me kill you, cupcake.”

“I don’t think you could even if you tried,” They both were a mess, a fit of giggles and laughter as they got dressed and headed outside. Ben didn’t realise how much he had needed this until now. He hadn’t been really been outside in about a week and a half, and the fresh air hit him like a train. He breathed in, smiling as Rey interlocked hands with him. Her hair was up in a ponytail, bouncing up and down as the two of them headed to the school’s pizzeria together. This was the happiest he’d ever seen her.  

The two of them got a small cheese pizza, and Rey nearly devoured half of it within the first five minutes of getting it. “Hey, leave some for me.”

“Gotta keep up,” She said with a mouthful of cheese.

“Dainty,”

“Only the daintiest.” They ate for a minute or two in silence before Rey grabbed him by the hand and pulled him along to the theatre. By the time they made it there, Ben was panting. He forgot that vampires were faster than humanly possible. She ordered tickets for the both of them and they sat down in the theatre, away from everyone else. They were silent for a while as the previews were playing when Rey whispered, “You know… I remember being in Paris when the first film was invented. It was… magical… it seems weird now how much everything has advanced.”

“You’ve got to tell me stories about that in the future.”

* * *

 

 

They were making out again outside their dorm room, probably making enough noise for everyone to hear. Slowly, they made their way into the dorm room again when Rey took her shirt off. “Woah, wh-” She stopped, her face turning red. 

“Did you not want to-” 

_ No, no, no that’s not what he meant. That’s not what he meant. What the fuck, stop being such a prude, Ben.  _ He thought to himself. 

“No, I just…” 

She was already putting her shirt back on. “I mean, it’s fine if you-” 

“I just have-” He didn’t know what to do.  _ Fuck, if he could actually speak for once that would be nice as well.  _ “I haven’t ever done this before.” 

“Oh,” She rolled her eyes, “well I knew that. But you want to, right?” He couldn’t speak and Rey was grinning like an idiot. “I’ll go slow,” She said. Ben started kissing her again. “Is that a yes?” 

“Yes,”

* * *

Ben and Rey had been out and about for a while, but Rey felt something looming on her back. Like something bad was about to happen, she didn’t really know how to describe the feeling to Ben. Her feeling was only confirmed when they went back to their dorm room and she heard people entering their dorm room. She made Ben stand behind her as she listened. 

“They’re not here.” One person said. 

“Well we have to find them, especially that one bitch that broke Hux’s neck.” Her heart nearly skipped a beat. “You know that they’re going to be a problem to the new board of directors.” 

“Yeah, I know. I’m pretty sure that any girl that can trap a nine century old vampire in the same pit as a demon god and get out of it would be a problem with the new board of directors.”  _ Who the fuck were the new board of directors that these dips were talking about?  _ “Listen, maybe they left campus for good. Then we wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of disposing someone who knows how to get out of having their soul sucked into a blade.” 

“You know that blade sucks up the soul after the attack is finished. You know what that means…”

“She didn’t actually kill anything?” 

“Nope, but she did trap the Dean with the demon god, and if she can do that, she’s dangerous.” 

She stopped listening. That was all she needed to hear. “We need to go,” She whispered. 

“What?” 

“Danger. You need to go get Poe and Finn too. They’re looking for all of us.” 

 


	12. Well, Fuck

“Well, hello everyone. Remember when I said that I was gonna stop filming? I kinda lied, I guess. I think. I don’t know.” Ben said. “Um, yeah… sorry about the brain fog I lost a little blood.” There was moaning in the background. Poe was holding a barely conscious Rey up with one arm. “She uh… got attacked by two vampires at once. Someone almost slit her throat.”

“I’m...okay…” They set her down and Finn started attending to her. “Are you okay?” Ben nodded and turned back to the camera.

“She's probably not okay,” He admitted. “Anyways, we got attacked. Apparently the Dean still has his cronies around the school and they’re pretty pissed that she killed him. So they attacked us all, but of course as usual, Rey saved the day. She got us here to this… oddly fancy dorm. I think it might be a former teacher’s dorm. I don’t know though. So there’s probably some other big bad out there that’s going to try and consume the Earth in hellfire. Whoopie. I just wanted a fucking break.” With that, he shut off the camera and turned his attention to Rey, who was staying silent.

He’d tried asking her what the vampires had told her, but she wouldn’t answer. _She will when she’s feeling better,_ he thought. The two of them were over the stage where Rey was keeping secrets. She was a hero now. Finn was done bandaging her up and she shooed him away, mumbling something about being way too old for this shit. Ben smiled a little, sitting down next to her. “Hey,” he said when Poe and Finn had found their own bedroom.

“Hey,” She said.

“You okay?”

“Just peachy,” He kissed her on the forehead, moving so they could lay down on the couch together. “Are you okay?” She asked.

“Peachy,”

* * *

 

_“Why must you always come out here at night?” This was the fourth time that Kylo came to meet her, even after she had left. “You’re going to get hypothermia,” She smiled sadly, looking out at the moon. “Something’s wrong. Did I do something wrong?” He asked._

_“Today’s the day my sister died.”_

_He was silent._

_“Oh, god. I’m so sorry I didn’t-”_

_She waved her hand, dismissing it. “I know, it’s okay. No need to apologize, it was a long time ago. A really long time ago, we weren’t even real sisters. She was adopted. I still loved her though, and it’s like there’s a piece of me that dies every time that I think about her.” Kylo nodded understandingly. “Sorry for unloading that on you, it’s not something that you needed to hear at this time of night._

_“No,” He said, “it was.” It was a spur of the moment decision, but he said, “I think I may be in love with you, Rey.” She froze. “And a man who is in love with a woman needs to make it his business to make sure that she’s happy… or at least… okay.”_

* * *

 

    Rey woke up remembering what day it was, and she almost lost it. Ben wasn’t awake, but she was. The one perk of death was that she would be able to see her again. Her and Kylo. She got neither of those, and part of that made her angry. Slowly, she got up from the couch, still sore from the attack yesterday. Rey kicked the rug next to the couch as quietly as she could, revealing a small door that lead to the tunnels under the school. Without a single word, she opened it, slowly closing it behind her. She hoped to god that Ben wouldn’t find out who’s dormitory this had been, or she would be getting in a lot of trouble.

    The tunnels were cool and damp and silent, something that Rey readily welcomed. She needed a drink. And blood. A lot of it. The tunnels twisted and turned but eventually lead to several feeding grounds that were all lined with blood bags and some times recently deceased humans. Hopefully she wouldn’t get distracted and get back to their dorm before Ben noticed she was missing.

Ben didn't know where Rey was. For a minute he panicked, his hands reaching out to the air as he looked for her, but she turned the lamp on and he calmed down. “Hey,” There was a bit of blood running down her chin. “You okay?” She nodded, biting her lip silently. She wasn't okay. “Tell me what's wrong,” Rey shook her head no and Ben got up fully. “Rey,”

  
“You can't fix every thing,” she said.

“Try me.”

 

“I'm serious, Ben. It's something you can't fix.” She pushed him away and got up, peeling the bandage from her neck and throwing it in the trash. There was no longer any bite marks left. “Let's just do something else instead.”

  
“Okay,” he agreed, “what do you want to do?”

Rey raised an eyebrow and Ben flushed a shade of pink. “Oh,” He said. 

“Oh?”  _ Damn it. Why did he still get embarrassed over these things?  _ “Yes, sure, if that’s what you want.” 

“That’s what I want,”

* * *

 

_ “What?” Rey said. Kylo looked like he was going to pass out.  _

_ “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. I’m so sorry, you didn’t need that right now.” He looked like he was about to bolt back to his house, but Rey caught him by the wrist.  _

_ She looked up into his eyes, the moon shining down on his face. With one impulse, she kissed him. In her mind, she knew she shouldn’t be doing this. She wanted to keep him from disappearing, but she was selfish, really really selfish, and she wanted to forget everything. When she pulled back, his eyes were hazy, like he hadn’t expected her to do that.  _

_ “Don’t be sorry,” She whispered. “I’ll see you in the morning, Kylo Ren.”  _

_ “See you in the morning, my Rey.”  _

* * *

 

“You guys are really fucking loud when you have sex,” Poe yawned when he came into the living room, “Like we were trying to bone in the other room and we had to stop because hearing someone else’s moans while you’re trying to get the freaky deaky on yourself kind of puts a damper in it.” Rey rolled her eyes. 

“We weren’t that loud,” 

Finn came into the room with a cup of tea in his hand. “Yes, you were.” Ben nearly choked in horror as they started talking about who’s moans were louder than who’s. Eventually Finn said, “Hey I think you guys are making Ben uncomfortable.” 

“Babe, sex is just a natural part of life. You don’t need to freak out so much about it.”  _ That was easy enough for her to say.  _ “Anyways, enough about sex, we need to get a game plan to find out what exactly the Dean’s cronies are up to.” 

“I think I can help,” Everyone in the room turned to see a girl standing by the door of their dormitory. She wore all black, her makeup exactly on point and her hair sleek, tossed behind her back. Her eyes were red and her smile was wide. “My name is Jessika Pava.” She said. “Nice to meet you.” Ben turned to Rey. She looked as white as a sheet. 

“Sister?” She nearly choked on her disbelief. Jessika turned her attention to Rey, a more gentle smile on her face. “Oh my god, it is you.” Rey jumped up from her seat, practically tackling her in a hug. She had a sister? Rey had never told him that. He watched the girl jump and down at the sight of this stranger and thought,  _ What else hadn’t she told him about herself?  _


	13. Chapter Thirteen: Suck my Dick, Asshat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wrote a small semi-smut, be proud of me

Rey couldn’t believe that Jess was alive. She couldn’t believe she was hugging her right now. This may have been the happiest she’d felt in a long time. “Oh my god,” Jessika laughed, hugging her back tighter. “It’s been so long,” Everyone else seemed to fall away, staring on in confusion at the new person in their dorm. 

“I know,” 

“How long have you been alive?” 

“A week,” Her sister said. Rey punched her in the arm. “Ow! What was that for?” 

“For not telling me you were alive sooner!” She hugged her again. “I missed you so much.” The moment was interrupted by Poe saying,

“Since when did you have a sister?” She rolled her eyes and turned around. 

“Since centuries before any of you were born, loser.” That shut him up and she turned back to Jessika. “How did you get back?” The girl shrugged and sat down on one of their armchairs. 

“Beats me, but one day I end up here and the Dean is dead and there’s a bounty out for your death.” That sounded just like old times. “It was pretty easy to track you down too, but the less clever vampires won’t be able to get around the warding spells you put there, so there’s that.”

Ben spoke, “And we’re just supposed to trust you.” Something in Rey’s stomach dropped. She didn’t know why his remark stung so much, but it did. She didn’t look at him, but angrily growled, 

“She’s my sister,” 

“You didn’t even tell me you had a sister, Rey, and after everything we’ve been through you can’t just-”

“ _We can trust her and that is the end of the discussion,_ ” The walls shook when Rey spoke and Jessika laughed. 

“I’d listen to her if I were you,” She said. “But if you feel so uncomfortable with me being here-” 

“You’re not about to leave, are you?” She just got here. 

“No, but I suggest that you and I talk somewhere else if that’s okay with you, I think your boy toy and his friends can fend for themselves for a bit. It’s been centuries, I need to catch up with you.” Ben looked like he was about to object, but Rey didn’t care, she picked up her leather jacket and flipped him the bird.  _That’s what you get for being an asshole, asshole._ The two of them walked out of the room and Rey closed the door as hard as she could, making it’s frame shake. 

The two of them walked in silence for a while down in the tunnels before Rey finally spoke, “It got worse when you left,” 

“What?” 

“Everything, everything got worse when you left.” She said. “I was put up as a lure, I fell in love, and he died because of me, the hunger got worse, the anger got worse, it all just got so much worse when you died.” Jessika looked down, clearing her throat awkwardly. 

“I’m sorry,” She said. “But I was staked four times, there’s usually no coming back from that.” Rey nodded, understanding completely. Still, she had no idea how Jessika had just randomly popped up from the dead. She wasn’t sure she cared. “So was he your first love,” 

“No,” Rey replied, almost a little too quickly. 

“Oh?” 

“A long distant ancestor of him,” Jessika nodded, and then giggled. 

"Interesting,"

"He's usually not that much of a dick," She said, "I'm sorry." Jessika waved it off and they turned a corner, finding an entrance to a pizza shop on the edge of campus. They each bought a slice before entering the tunnels again, before Jessika said,

"I'm used to not being trusted. That's fine. He's just trying to look out for you and that's admirable." She grabbed Rey's hand as they walked, "I only want the best for you."

Rey smiled, her heart feeling warm for the moment. 

 

 

* * *

“You really shouldn’t have yelled at her,” Finn said. Ben turned his attention to him. 

“I didn’t yell at her,” 

“You basically implied her sister wasn’t trustworthy man, that’s a dick move.” 

“I’m pretty sure she never told him anything about it,” Poe said tiredly, “but frankly I don’t give a damn about Rey’s secret relatives, we just need information so we know how to take down the people that are looking for us, and her sister claims that she has that information, so we need to take what we can.” He was right, but still Ben felt annoyed enough that he didn’t want to listen.

“I thought she was done keeping secrets from me,” 

“Take it from someone who’s been laid before,” Finn said, “your partner’s dark past isn’t your business unless they want it to be your business.” It was the most assertive thing that the boy had ever said, “You’re not entitled to know every detail about her.” 

“Well, it seems like at least one person has common sense around here.” Rey came stumbling through the door, blood dribbling down her chin. She was laughing. “Thank you, cupcake, you’re my new favorite.” Ben tensed at that. 

“Where’s Jessika?” 

“What? Oh her? I thought she made you uncomfortable.” She was doing that thing again. That thing where she purposefully tried to get under Ben’s skin. _It worked every fucking time._ He hated that she could do that to him so easily. “So I told her to come back in the morning.” 

“Where were you two the whole time?” Poe asked. 

“Oh, just catching up on a couple centuries of lost time. You can’t get out your whole sob story in a thirty minute talk.”  _She told Jessika everything, and not him. Of course._

“You got a little something on your-” Rey seemed to be just made aware of the blood that was all over her. 

“Oops,” She laughed, wiping the blood off her chin with the sleeve of her leather jacket. “Forgot about that.” Ben was suddenly very concerned about the safety of some random student she might’ve sucked dry. He looked into her eyes, catching her off guard for a moment. She looked upset. They were both silent for a minute before Finn and Poe got the clue that they needed to go to their room. 

 

“ Say what you’re going to say, I’m tired.” Rey spat. 

“I’m sorry,” He said. She raised an eyebrow, obviously waiting for him to elaborate. “I shouldn’t have doubted you and been rude to your sister, it’s just that after everything, it’s hard to trust people, you know?” 

“That’s bullshit,” 

“What?” 

“Ben, I’m not stupid, the reason you were mad is because I didn’t tell you about her.” Ben didn’t know what to say. She was right though. “Did you consider that maybe I didn’t want to relive that memory?” 

“Why? She’s your sister-” 

“ _She was murdered when I was a fucking teenager, Ben!_ I watched her die while I stood by helpless and scared out of my mind. I held her as she bled out under the moon and I watched as she was taken away to be buried in a mass grave because at the time she had no money, and I did nothing. I couldn’t do anything. _”_ He went silent. He didn’t know that. “ So yeah, it was bad enough that you made me relive that shit with Kylo, the shit that was my fault, but I didn’t want to relive Jess, I wanted to forget it because it fucked me up okay! And you do not get to act like some fucking psycho just because I didn’t want to tell you something okay?” Rey went silent when she realized how loud she was yelling. “I’m sorry,” 

“It’s okay,” Ben said, “I was a dick.” 

“Yeah, you were.” 

“Ha,” He rolled his eyes, about to turn away from her when she grabbed his wrist, turning him back towards her. She pounced on him, her hands knotted in his hair, legs locked around his waist, as she kissed him. Her rough lips against his soft ones, they fell backwards onto the desk, knocking the camera set up to the floor. A moan escaped Ben and he had to remember not to blush. They’d done this before, he didn’t need to act like this was the first time. Although, each time they did this, it was better than the rest. Rey’s fingertips leaving scratches in his back as he worked on unclasping her bra. He wasn’t even worried about people walking in this time. 

There were more… _pressing_ matters at hand. 

 

 

* * *

 

Jessika kept her promise. She was there in the morning and she seemed rather bemused to see most of the things still knocked off of the desk. She looked over at Rey with a knowing glance and the two of them giggled, then Rey straightened her face. “Now what can you tell us about the people looking for us.” Ben had had the computer back up to record the whole thing. She could tell he was tense despite the fact that they’d fucked all over the living room of the dorm last night 

“Right,” She said, “straight to business.” Jessika was looking over at Ben for some reason, maybe trying to mess with him. At the time Rey allowed it. “So the people looking for you aren’t lackies of Snoke, they’re employed by Snoke’s employers.” 

“Snoke? Employers?” 

“The Dean, Snoke, call him what you like.” Jessika dismissed him. “The Dean was on a consulate that runs the world’s most supernatural places. This being the spot for the most paranormal activity in centuries with the angler fish demon god in that pit that you failed to kill. He kept the god in tact, and despite the fact that The Dean was literally the most deplorable being in the history of deplorable, he was the only thing keeping one member of the consulate in check.”

“Who?” 

“Nihilus, he wants to use the god to harness his own power.” 


	14. Chapter Fourteen: you can't fuck with me, if you wanted to

 

“Nihilus?” by the look on the Rey’s face, this Nihilus guy wasn’t a good sign. “We’re leaving Ben,” 

“What?” 

“You heard me,” 

“Yeah, but I don’t understand why we’re leaving?” 

“He’s the one who murdered me,” Jessika said rather calmly, “ _Well, his grandfather was the one who murdered me,_ and Nihilus is intent on finishing his father’s legacy as a vampire hunter _.”_ Rey looked terrified. 

“We can’t stay, and I’m not letting you die again, you’re coming with us,” Jessika smiled, starting to cackle. 

“That’s cute, sister, but I’m not scared of him.” 

Rey cocked her head to the side, “Why’s that?” Jess pulled a card out of her breast pocket, and let Rey look at it. “I just became a member of the consulate, other members of the consulate can’t set up assassination attempts when the victim is a Consulate member or their family. So he can’t kill me,” 

* * *

“Doesn’t that mean you can’t kill him either?” Ben asked. 

“She doesn’t care about rules,” She said. “So that solves the problem of you and me being safe, but what about him?” Jessika shrugged, admitting that she hadn’t exactly figured out the semantics of that yet. Rey rolled her eyes, she knew by now that Ben wouldn’t agree to leave now that they knew there was a big bad on campus that they had to defeat. 

“Uh, guys.” Finn stuttered. “Go to the campus website right now,” Ben pulled up his computer and looked up the campus website. Much to his chagrin, he saw a video from the new “Dean” already up. 

“Turn it on.” Poe said. 

“You know it’s just going to be the same evil guy speech of doom,” Rey hissed. “We don’t need this shit we need to get packing and go.” Ben turned the video on, and of course, Rey was right. Nihilus was an old man but he had a commanding presence that sent chills into everyone else. 

_Hello, students. I want to make my presence to you known, because as the new Dean, I feel that that is the right thing to do. I want to make clear that there is a virus setting into this campus known as vampirism, it killed the students that you fought so hard to get back, it killed your friends. I vow that I will eterminate every vampire that threatens the safety of our school, that includes the trespasser that has made her way onto the Consulate, Jessika Pava._ Rey’s nostrils flair, “Oh, I’d like to see him fucking try, that crippled old -” Video started playing of Jessika underground, surrounded by a pile of bodies, gleefully sucking away at whatever blood they had left. _She is a danger, and will not be ignored._ The video ended and Ben was filled with dread.

“Jess,” Rey said. 

“What?”

“That was a lot of people,” She was trying to give Jessika a way of getting out of this, of explaining herself, but this had already sealed the deal for Ben. He tried his best to hide his face as he turned off the computer. 

“Survival of the fittest,” She rolled her eyes, “plus it’s not like they were actual campus students, darling.” Rey sighed, and looked down at the ground. 

“If you say so, any ways, we have to think of a plan.” 

“I think we have a plan.” Jessika said. 

“And what’s that?” 

“Murder Nihilus,” 

* * *

 

 

 

 

Rey sighed, Jessika really wasn’t making this any easier for herself. “We can’t just murder Nihilus because you say that he’s bad.” Ben said. 

“Bad?” Finn spoke up before Rey could say anything. “Didn’t you hear her say that she murdered Jessika? Stop being such a dick dude,” Rey nodded, showing Finn that she was glad for the fact that he stood up for her. 

“I thought we resolved this last night,” she said quietly. 

“Before I knew she killed thirteen people!” 

“I killed more people than that the day I had to rescue you from sacrificing yourself to an angler fish god, alone, Ben!” 

“Yeah, but that was different.” He said, “that was for a purpose.” 

“And killing to eat isn’t a purpose?” Jessika chimed in non-chalantly. “I just woke up and you thought that I wasn’t hungry, well, sir you would be mistaken.” Her voice was so monotone, like she was disinterested in this small couples feud that they were having. 

 

 

 

“ If you’re done arguing I would like to discuss things with Rey,” 

“And why not with the rest of us?” 

“Because it’s clear you don’t trust me, and plans don’t work unless people that trust each other are working together.” Rey looked back at Ben. 

“Rey!”

She left with Jessika. 

 

 

 

* * *

“I guess people don’t understand that being a vampire requires blood,” Jessika hissed through her teeth, “ooh, murdering suddenly makes you untrustworthy to the whole group.” Rey was wondering where the whole _Ben is the best for you_ talk was now. 

“You said you had a plan,” 

“I did, and I do, just give me a second to bitch and complain for a second, will ya’?” Jess pulled her hair up into a sleek ponytail and began walking at a brisk pace. “I’ve already managed to get a good place on the Consulate.” Rey watched Jess pick her pace up, nails cutting into her palms as hard as she could. “This doesn’t put a wrench in things,” 

“Then why are you looking like you’re about to murder someone,” She whispered. Jessika didn’t answer. 

“What’s going to happen now is that Nihilus will try and manipulate Ben, I didn’t see it before but it’s obvious he still has some fear of vampires as well as added daddy issues that are making him freak out.” 

“He’s not scared of vampires,” Rey said. “That’s bullshit,” 

“Oh?” She almost laughed. “You keep thinking whatever makes you comfortable, sis.” Rey opened her mouth to say something, but closed it. Jess was right. “See, I get that you don’t want it to be true, but it is. Otherwise that little trick that that old shriveled up dick hat pulled wouldn’t have actually done anything to him.” 

“So how do we keep him from getting manipulated? How do we stop Nihilus from taking the power of the angler fish god for himself?” 

“We kill him,” 

“Oh, that’s so easy. It’s not like I could get in there and kill him myself, he has his heart protected.” 

“There’s a few books that we need to figure that out, we’re going to get them right now.” Rey had a feeling whatever they were about to face was not going to be fun. 

“You ready?” Jess smiled, and suddenly Rey’s worries went away. 

“Yes,”

 

 

 

* * *

When Rey came back, she and Jessika were laughing, and her leather jacket was almost in tatters. “What the hell happened?” Jessika put a few books on his table, and Rey said, 

“Relax, cupcake, we were just having a little fun,” 

“We got books in order to stop the apocalypse,” Jessika said. “Set a few things on fire,” She fell back onto the couch, stretching out lackadaisically. Ben looked at Rey, expecting more  of an explanation from her, but she didn’t offer him a thing. “No big deal, now since I sense that you two are about to have another couple’s feud, I’m going to leave.” Ben gritted his teeth. 

“No, stay. Rey wants you here,” Both Rey and Jess turned, raising their eyebrows. “What?” Ben raised his hands as if in surrender. “That was the right thing to say, right?” Rey’s lips were turning up in a smile. 

“Yes,” She planted a kiss on top of his head. “Thank you,” He felt like he would regret this later. 


	15. Chapter Fifteen: Don't Get Attached To Someone You Could Lose

For the past few days, Ben had become increasingly paranoid having Jessika around, despite the fact that he was trying his best to be civil. It didn’t help that she took amusement from him being afraid of her too, it seemed whenever Rey wasn’t looking Jessika would snarl at him or make a slightly threatening move. She would never believe it if he told her either.

Ben was sitting at his computer, ready to upload another video about Nihilus when Jessika walked into the room. He tensed when she sat down next to him. “Well, someone’s up early.”

“What do you want?”

“I just want to talk, that’s all. No need to get all defensive,” She raised her hands in mock surrender and then looked into his eyes. It was unsettling, how red her eyes were compared to Rey’s, whose eyes were almost a normal hazel in comparison. “Do you love my sister?” Was the first thing that she asked, and it wasn’t what Ben was expecting at all. He almost choked on air before he answered,

“Yes, of course. Why?”

“Because she loves you, and I wanted to make sure that the feeling was reciprocated.”

“Why would it not be reciprocated?”

“Don’t play dumb,” He wanted to say he wasn’t, she was just not making any sense whatsoever. “I’ve been noticing that my presence here makes you extremely uncomfortable,” _Yeah, and you’ve done nothing to make me trust you either._ “And I know that I haven’t helped that much,” Ben refrained from rolling his eyes, “I’m afraid I was just having a little too much fun with that. Anyways, that’s not the point. As a result of it, you and Rey have been fighting.”

“I don’t need relationship advice from you,” With a quick jab to the side, Ben doubled over, his head on the desk. “Fuck!” He shouted.

“Shut up, and listen mortal. Rey is my sister, and you not trusting her is hurting her, especially on this. I couldn’t give less of a damn if you actually trusted me, it’s not like your feelings are of any consequence to me, but you not pretending to at least be civil with me hurts her so act like you care enough that you’re willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.” Ben stayed with his head on the desk, not wanting to know what would happen if he got back up. “And finally,” She was right next to him, “if you break her heart then I will rip every organ out of your body, one at a time, very very slowly, and use it as my dessert.”

“Hey, what’s up.” Rey entered the room and Ben bounced back up.

“Nothing.” Jessika said, “Just about to go to a meeting. I’ll catch up with you later, okay?” Rey nodded and gave her a hug.

“Try not to kill anyone, okay?”

“No guarantees,” She told her, leaving with a wink at Ben.  Rey sat down by Ben’s side, putting her head on his shoulder giggling.

“You’re in a good mood,”

“I just wanted to say thank you, again. For letting Jess stay, it means a lot to me.” She hugged Ben, and then turned, starting to nip on her neck. “Mm, you know every day you just get sexier every day.” Ben wanted to kiss her back, but Jessika had made him extremely “ uncomfortable. Rey looked up at him. “You okay?”

“Nothing, just tired.”

Rey saw right through that bullshit, “You know that you can talk to me, right? I want you to talk to me,” He didn’t talk to her. He wished he had, but he didn’t. “Fine, be like that. I’m going to see if Poe and Finn are okay. We haven’t heard from them in a few days.” She left him alone, and he turned his video camera on.

* * *

 

“Hey, it’s been a while since we’ve talked. There’s been a lot going on and I just want to inform whoever’s listening about this stuff because, well, you might be able to help more than we can at the moment.” It was just then that Ben’s ears started ringing, at the time he just ignored it as being a migraine, “Nihilus, the new Dean, is apparently not all that he seems-” It got worse, and Ben blinked a few times, his nails digging into the meat of his palms. “-his plan is harness the power of the angler fish god for himself.” With that, Ben collapsed onto the ground, pain radiating through his whole body.

_“I gave you a warning,” A voice said. “And now you know to follow it, you will be my eyes.”_

Rey came back into the living room to see Ben collapsed on the floor. “Finn!” She called. Rey pulled Ben up into her arms. “Ben, Ben wake up.” She shook him, just ever so lightly. “Ben,” His eyes fluttered open, and he looked around disoriented.

“What happened?” Finn and Poe came running through the door.

“Ben fainted,” Rey smiled faintly. “Can you two get some orange juice and something for him to eat,” Her attention turned to him. “Hey, cupcake. Are you okay?” He nodded and she helped him to the couch. “What happened?” Ben looked around disoriented, smiling when his face got on Rey again.

“I… I don’t really know. Just got weirdly nauseous.”

She raised an eyebrow, “How much have you been sleeping the past few days?” She knew that she wasn’t going to like the answer.

“I think I had like an average of two hours a day, I don’t know.”

“Ben!”

 

* * *

 

“Yeah, I know, that’s bad. But we’ve had things to do and I just haven’t had time to focus on anything.” Rey rolled her eyes as Poe came back with a glass of orange juice.

“Looks like loser’s up again,” He laughed. “You need to stop being so stressed out about everything all the time. Don’t need you fainting like a damsel in distress a second time,”

“Uh huh,”

“He’s right, Ben.” Ben took the glass of juice and downed it fast. “You need some sleep. I think that we all do.” Finally, something that Ben and Rey could agree on. After it seemed that Ben was feeling better they all headed to their respective rooms, closing the doors and dimming the lights, Rey took her pants and bra off and slid into bed next to him, sighing as he slid his arm over her midriff.

“You’re comfy,” He said.

“You’re warm,”

“I know, that’s a perk of being a mortal I guess.” Rey laughed and closed her eyes, listening to his heart slow down. 

Rey laughed and closed her eyes, listening to his heart slow down. “I love you,” He says. Rey bit her lip. That wasn’t something she didn’t expect to hear that after the tension that they had had this week.

“I love you too,” she said. By the time she said that he was already starting to fall asleep.

Jessika always kept a knife on her, just for insurance. She knew that she was going to need it now after coming back from a meeting. Someone was following her home after the meeting. She could hear their heartbeat rise each time she turned a corner. _It’s not Nihilus,_ she told herself, _vampire hunters don’t have heartbeats._ That meant that she was being followed by a spy of some sorts, which she frankly found a bit insulting. She lead the person following her into one of the basements in the library--which thankfully didn’t try to murder her--and said, “I think it’s kind of insulting that Nihilus would send a mortal after me.”

“Please don’t kill me,”

“No,” She said, “I’m going to do something a lot more painful than that.”

Rey did not sleep well that day. She kept seeing him. Not Ben, not the Dean, not Nihilus, but _him, Kylo._

* * *

 

_Rey closed the door behind the both of them. Kylo was reading on his couch, the light shining on him. God, that day he looked so perfect. “It’s done.” Rey said, she was unable to hold her excitement. “We can get on a boat and go to New York tomorrow morning. You’ll love it. There’s singing, dancing, and concerts… so much life…” Kylo put his book down. The look in his eyes ominous. Rey stopped. “What’s wrong?”_

_“I know.” He said._

* * *

 

Ben was dreaming someone else’s memories, going in and out. He saw an old victorian like study, and someone who looked almost exactly like him, except he had a scar across his face. He was reading, trying to find some reason to relax but he couldn’t. He turned to see Rey. She looked like she was in love, starry-eyed…Ben had never seen her look at him like that before. “It’s done.” She said. She looked so excited. So youthful. Ben woke up from his dream next to Rey, who was still sleeping.

Quietly he slipped out of bed and went to his desk, ready to record again.

He thought nothing of the small snippet of a dream he had seen. There were more pressing things to take care of at the moment.

**1 New Text:**

 

**From Phasma:**

_Hey, asshole. You’ve not come back to your apartment for weeks… you still alive?_

 

**To Phasma:**

 

_Yeah, sorry. I meant to get in touch with you, but things kept coming up._

**From Phasma:**

_Yeah, I know. It’s been kind of scary on campus with Nihilus trying to run things. There’s this one lady though, she’s super annoying and dressed from head to toe in super expensive shit… she’s been railing against Nihilus non-stop._

 

**To Phasma:**

 

_Jessika?_

 

**From Phasma:**

 

_Yeah, I think. Why?_

 

**To Phasma:**

 

_That’s Rey’s long lost sister. Apparently Nihilus’ grandfather murdered her._

 

**From Phasma:**

 

_WTF. That’s news._

 

**To Phasma:**

 

_I’ve been meaning to film an update but it’s been pretty hard._

 

**From Phasma:**

 

_Send me your location, I’ll be over to help. I have some information about what’s been happening on campus that I think you’ll want to hear too._

 

**To Phasma:**

 

_About Nihilus?_

 

**From Phasma:**

 

_Not just him. About Jessika, about Rey, about some other people that are trying to prevent Nihilus from whatever his grand plan is._

 

That made Ben anxious.

 

**To Phasma:**

_Okay_.

 

 

* * *

 

_“I know that you lied,” Kylo elaborated. “Over and over and over again,” That was when Rey saw the knife in his hand. Her heart froze._

_“What are you doing?” Kylo winced as he drug the knife over his skin, and Rey looked away from it. She could smell his blood. It reminded her of the fact that she hadn’t had it in weeks. She could hear every single drip, drip, drip, as it hit the floor._

_“Look at me, Rey.” Her palms dug into her hands. “Look at me.”_

_She did._

* * *

 

“Hey, I haven’t updated in a while, this is the fourth time I’ve had to film this due to migraines and just a whole bunch of other shit… I don’t know… anyways you guys need to know what’s happening,” He planned to edit in the part about Nihilus later. “So um… Phasma’s here, so she’s going to help with all that.” God, he wanted to go to sleep again, but he knew that that wasn’t possible. Phasma smiled, looking at him with concern. “Go over what you have with them.”

He wished that he could listen, but he was zoning out, thinking about the information she’d given him off camera.

Thinking about Rey…

* * *

 

 _“So he was right,”_ **_He…_ ** _Snoke… “You are a monster,” Rey’s heart broke just a little bit then._

_“I can explain,”_

_“No, I am done with your explanations.” He said. “You lied, and you lied, and you lied. You told me that there was nothing wrong, that sometimes when you went missing you just needed air and I trusted you because you told me that you loved me.”_

_“I never lied about that!”_

_“You drank my blood!”_

_“That was a mistake-”_

_“-and tried to make it out to be some heinous nightmare. I thought that I was going insane…” His eyes were burning._

_“Kylo, I'm sorry. I really am, but you cannot trust him. If you think I'm a monster, he would surpass me in that category tenfold.”_

_“I doubt he could surpass you in that category. What greater sin is there than lying to the man you were betrothed to?” Rey opened her mouth but couldn't. She was breaking. He took the wedding band he had on his finger off. Throwing it at her. “He told me that he would show me the world, and I could be without you.”_

_“You can't go with him, Kylo. He's lying. He'll tear you apart.” She grabbed his arm and he tensed, looking back at her, shrugging her off of him._

_“I'll send someone to collect you.” He said. “I don't want to have to see you again.”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When Rey woke up, it was midnight and Ben wasn't anywhere near. She got up and went outside to see him sitting on the couch, looking like he was about to pass out. He had reading glasses on, and he was staring at some notes that he had taken. 

“Hey, what's wrong?” She asked. 

“I can't deal with this,” he threw the notes across the room. They fell just short of the wall. 

“Woah, someone's frustrated.”

“Jessika has a body count of four thousand and eight hundred people. Innocent people, Rey!”

“Yeah, so?”

“So? Innocent people-”

“Those deaths were mostly before you were born,”

“You knew and you still supported her,”

“She's my sister,” She shrugged it off. “It would be completely different if she actually threatened you… Or Finn, or Poe. But she hasn't.”

“You were never gonna tell me, were you?” He sounded horrified. 

“No. Now is that all?”

“Is that all?” He got up, “there are things about you… Rey … that you lied about… that was brought to my attention.” At this point, something in Rey's stomach should have dropped. She should have been ready to cry and beg that he shouldn't be mad. She felt nothing. “You drank Kylo's blood. You attacked him and drank his blood until he passed out for the night and forgot the people you killed. You indirectly killed five thousand people, directly killed two thousand more. You lead a woman to her death and twenty years later came back for her children, shall I go on?”

“Sure,” Rey didn't know why, but some sort of venom had filled her as she sat down. “We'll be here for a few days.”

* * *

 

The spy was hers now. Jessika sent her back with a message and one message only. “You're not the only one who can play this game.”

Now time to get home to Rey. She was probably worried sick.

* * *

 

“I can't believe you!” Ben shouted. “You seriously have nothing to say, do you?” She was silent. Ben's heart was pounding. “I can't deal with this," he says again.  

  
"Deal with what? Me?"

  
"Yes. You,"

  
"Well I can't believe that you care about stuff that happened hundreds of years ago…”   
"I know what happened to Kylo… despite you making it seem like it was his fault." Ben said. "... all this time I was thinking it was his fault but it wasn't. It was yours."

  
"Ben that was a long time-"

  
"-I can't be with someone who lies, Rey." Rey stayed silent as he went on, "the worst thing was I thought you changed. I thought you were a hero. Not a selfish monster like Jessika."

“Oh, fuck you.” She said. “You always knew I was like this. You chose to be with me like this, knowing I wasn't going to change.”

“I don't know if I can trust you.” Both of them were silent for a minute.

“Fine, be a child like that.”

“I think we should break up.”

 

 


	16. Chapter Sixteen: I Set Them Up To Knock Them Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "i think i should know how to make love to something innocent without leaving my fingerprints..."-starstruck (cover) Marina and The Diamonds

She didn’t react at all.

    He thought she would shout or yell, he thought she would at least call him stupid, but she didn’t react at all. It was quiet between the two of them for the longest time before she whispered, “If that’s what you want. That’s what you’ll have.” She walked out of the room and left him there, there was no big blow up or aggression. She was just gone. Both Finn and Poe came out of their room and the respective times, he could feel that the both of them wanted to say something, but they just watched as Ben sat down on the couch and hung his head in his hands— _maybe this was for the best._ He tried to convince himself, _it was for the best._

Now he could focus on what really mattered.

* * *

Rey counted twelve bottles of vodka before Jess showed up, covered in blood and sighing. “You look like shit,” She told Rey.

“Touche,” The girl rolled her eyes and was about to down another bottle before Jess grabbed it from her, taking a swig.

“This is disgusting,”

“Why’d you drink it?”

“Because I didn’t think it would taste so gross,” She sighed, moving it away from Rey gingerly before sitting on the empty bar stool next to her. “So something’s bothering you. What’s up?”  Rey knew what Jessika was going to do when she heard that Ben had broken up with her, and she was too tired for it.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” She huffed. “Now give me back my vodka,”

“He broke up with you didn’t he?” _Damn it!_ “I’m going to kill that son of a fleabag mortal-”

“-no you’re not. I don’t want anything to do with him right now, okay? That includes not wanting to see his head ripped off and put on a pike.” Jess rolled her eyes, sitting back down next to Rey. She looked around at all the people that were passed out on the floor.

“Did you really have to kill all these people?”

“They’re not all dead.” She said. “They’re Phasma’s friends,”

“Who’s Phasma?”

“Just some bitch who wanted to get into my ex boyfriend’s pants.” Rey explained. Suddenly Jessika got it. “You turned all of her friends,” Rey shrugged as if it was nothing—but Jessika burst out laughing— “I’m assuming she’s the reason that lover boy decided to break up with you, in which case good job, sis. You got back at them. That also leaves us with a bit of an army.” _That was right,_ Rey remembered, _who ever she turned was immediately her subordinate._ Someone gasped over in the corner of the bar. “Well, looks like that’s our cue.” Jess smirked. “Come on, we have our own shit to do.”

* * *

 

“I know you want to say something, so go ahead and say it.” Poe was the first one to speak, and he was pissed.

“Yeah, asshole, how about _you fucking dick you just alienated the only semi-immortal being with a chance of defeating Nihilus_ and now we’re totally screwed. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the fact that her murderous sister could hear that you broke up with her, come in here and rip your head off at any moment. So that’s another enemy. Also Rey was the only one who could read Sumerian! How are we supposed to translate any of these books? How are we supposed to do anything without her?” They were silent for a moment, Poe seething. Ben didn’t look up at him. “You know, I thought you were smart.”

“She lied,”

“I don’t give a shit if she lied, the only thing I care about is keeping Finn safe, and by an extension you. You just fucked up royally, dude.” With that he left, going to the kitchen.

Ben turned to Finn, “Are you here to yell at me too?” Finn shook his head no and left, leaving Ben alone with a migraine. She hadn’t even reacted—

Rey sauntered through the door smelling like vodka, she had a large bin full of blood bags in her hand, Jessika followed shortly behind her, her hands balled into fists. “You’re sleeping out on the couch,” Rey said matter-of-factly. She plopped the bin of blood bags on his desk, and took three for herself.

“Rey,”

“Fuck off, I’m drunk and don’t want to see your face.” When she closed the door the frame shook.

“She told me not to kill you,” Jessika hissed.

“Oh, really?”

“Really, and you should thank her for that. Because if she hadn’t, you’d be dying a very slow and painful death.” 

Ben got up, tensing.

“Yeah, you said that before, but I’m not sure you can do that.”

“Uh… I don’t think you should do that.” Finn said. He was right, but Ben was pissed, pissed that he was automatically being blamed for everything, pissed that Jessika was here. Jess didn’t care about any of that though, her only concern was Rey. Without much of effort, she grabbed Ben’s collar and lifted him up off his feet.

“You just screwed your chances of survival by at least eighty percent—”

“Jessika!” Rey shouted from the other room. Ben was dropped flat on his ass.

“ _Fuck!”_ He was about to get up when the heel of one of Jessika’s louboutin’s pressed against his chest. She was even stronger than Rey.

“Be glad that she’s around, because if she wasn’t, you would be nothing but a stain on the carpet.”

* * *

“Hey everyone, another update. Starting with some shit that needs to be explained, just in case you see Rey come in here and ruin a video like she has the first fifteen times I’ve tried to update this video in the next few videos.”  He looked behind him, Rey was nowhere to be seen, _thank god,_ “okay… so I broke up with Rey about a week ago and you guys really don’t need to know the details about it save the fact that she’s been ruining all of my attempts update you and it’s getting really fucking annoying.” He edited in clips of his former videos, “she’s stuck her boobs in my face three times in one day, her music is too loud, and she keeps leaving blood bags everywhere and it’s gross as fuck.”

Just then, Poe walked out into the living room, seemingly disheveled. “What are you doing?” Ben asked. Poe shrugged, mumbling something about getting shitfaced and then mentioned Rey. “What?”

“Rey brought a bunch of drinks to the roof, she asked if I want to hang out in chat because she heard I yelled at you for being a fucking idiot the other day.” Poe said nonchalantly.

“And you’re just going up there with her?”

“Yeah…” Poe paused. “Why am I supposed to stay down here with you and be like… your bro?” There was an awkward pause between the both of them. “Dude, she’s already up there with Finn and Jess… I just had to take a piss.” Ben rolled his eyes and turned back to his computer.

“Fine.” He sighed. “Go,” Poe had already left by the time that he said that. “Anyways, more about the Nihilus thing… Phasma is coming over to—” Phasma stormed through the door. _What is with everyone?_

“Where is that lying skanky fucking bitch?”

“Woah, calm down.” Ben got up, stopping Phasma from flipping a coffee table over. “What’s wrong?”

“Rey… she killed all of them.”

“What?”

“The Summer Society members, my friends… They’re all dead. This is payback for giving you that information right? Because I didn’t think it would break you up, Ben I just thought you should know.” Ben turned his camera off. This was the first time Ben saw Phasma cry.

“I know where she is, stay here okay. She’d rip you in two but she won’t kill me.” _Maybe she would_ , Ben couldn’t guarantee that anymore. He walked up the stairs to the roof, trying not to get pissed off, but it wasn’t working. He opened the door and slipped through. American Idiot by Green Day was playing full volume on the speakers.

When Poe said Rey had smuggled a whole bunch of alcohol to the roof, he wasn’t lying. It was almost as if she smuggled a whole bar’s worth of liquor on to the roof and managed to get all the bottles to fit on a couple of fold out tables that were pressed up against the wall. There were more women than Ben was expecting. He could’ve sworn that they were some of the Summer Society girls, but he couldn’t be too sure, he’d never paid much attention to any of them. Finn was the first person who saw him, “Ben!” He pulled him aside. “You’re not supposed to be here,”

“I need to talk to Rey about something,”

“Yeah, well she really doesn’t want to talk to you.” Finn hissed. “Like… she’s really fucking pissed at you.”

“What? For breaking up with her, it’s not like we were in love anyways.”

“Dude—” The music cut out.

“I smell a human that isn’t Finn or Poe,” Rey shouted through the crowd of women, “let me guess. It’s a backstabbing liar who’s bad in bed.” She was slurring her words. Ben wandered how many bottles of liquor it took to get a vampire _that_ drunk.

   

“What do you want?”

She stood a complete foot away with him, with Jessika at her side. Ben made a note of the knife in her hand. “Did you murder the Summer Society girls?” The song switched, some shitty pop song that was going to make his ears bleed. Rey laughed.

“No,” She raised an eyebrow, “murder is an awfully harsh statement I mean they’re all up here.” That’s when Ben noticed it. The red eyes, the smell of blood on the roof, he was on a roof full of vampires.

“What are you playing at?”

“Nothing.” She said, “just needed some allies.” Her tone was ice cold, and it nearly cut through Ben. “Now if you’re done, I have a party to get back to, and I don’t want you anywhere near me. Now go,”


	17. Chapter Seventeen: I'll Ruin You

Ben didn’t know if he should be disgusted or afraid of Rey, he decided he didn’t want to figure out at the moment. He got off the roof and went back down to Phasma, nearly sick. “What did she say?” Was the first thing the girl asked. 

“That they weren’t dead,” 

“That’s impossible, there was blood everywhere—” 

“—that doesn’t mean that they’re dead… they’re all up there.” Phasma got it, suddenly growing white. “I don’t know why she did it, I honestly don’t. She says that she needed allies but this might just be another one of her sick mind games.” Phasma shook her head. 

“We can’t deal with this right now, we need to focus on Nihilus.” 

“Right,”

* * *

 

Rey was really drunk by the time everyone had started partying. Finn, Jess, and Poe were sitting opposite sides of her on the roof. No music was playing and no one else stayed there. Poe was the first to ask her, “You okay?” It took her a second to register the question. She bit her lip, trying to prevent the swelling in her chest to come up and result in her crying. 

“I’m fine.” She said. “Just drunk and tired.” Everyone knew she was lying. Jess pulled her in for a hug and Rey didn’t resist. She didn’t cry that night. She refused to cry because of him. She was mostly confused as to why everyone was taking her side on this, especially after some of the things that she had done. 

“So you’re trying to eliminate Nihilus’ army?” Poe was trying to distract her, she appreciated the effort. 

“Yeah, and make it easier for Jess to make an escape if needed.” She shrugged, “it’s hard to find one specific vampire if there’s at least fifty to a hundred.” Poe nodded understandingly. 

“What can I do to help?” 

“Why are you so gungho about helping me all the sudden?” 

“Ben pisses me off to be honest, most of the time I’m too high to bother but I heard everything he said to you, and it was fucking dumb.” Rey was glad that they were the only ones left on the roof, Finn and Jess decided to go back down to the flat. Too much liquor probably. 

“That’s sweet,” She said. “To be honest, right now I’m not sure that I can say there’s something that I need for certain. I don’t even know what Nihilus is planning, other than the fact that he wants the power from that pit, and he wants my sister dead.” Poe nodded, sipping at the water they’d both switched to. 

“I think I can help with that,” 

“What?” 

“I can make some bugs, and if Jess gets into his office, we can wiretap the room.” 

“That’s fucking genius!” She shouted. Poe laughed. “Sorry, I don’t know why I haven’t thought of that. I think I’m just a dumbass.” 

“Nah, you’re not.” He said. “Just had boyfriend trouble.” 

“Yeah, well… now it’s ex-boyfriend trouble.” Poe winced.

“Sorry about that by the way,” 

“You already said that,” 

“I know… still…”  

“It’s fine,” She shrugged it off, “nothing lasts forever anyways. You learn that when you live a couple of centuries.” 

“Still must be hard,”

“I’ll get over it.” Poe nodded and they both got up. 

“We should get back down to the dorm,” Rey was dreading that, but she knew that they needed to. “Hopefully Phasma isn’t down there.” 

“Ew, don’t mention her, please.”

* * *

 

Ben and Phasma had been scouring books that translated Sanskrit to English and Sumerian to English, and then trying their best to translate the books that they had in front of them. They hadn’t gotten much of anywhere. Finn and Jessika were the first ones to come down, and when Jessika saw Phasma, her eyes narrowed. It was quick and there was no way Ben could have stopped it, Phasma was knocked out of her seat and put into a headlock by Jess. “Don’t try to fight,” She said, she turned her attention to Ben. “You already dating someone after you so selfishly dumped my sister?” 

“No, now can you please release her?” 

“Why should I?”Rey came through the door, stumbling, and Poe was helping her stay upright. When she saw Phasma in Jessika’s lips, she stood upwards.

“Let her go, Jess. She’s really not worth the kill.” That was all it took for her to drop Phasma just like she had Ben not so long ago. “Plus her blood probably tastes weird,” She rolled her eyes and staggered past everyone. “Now sorry to all you, except Ben, but I’m going to fucking bed and I am not getting up until like Thursday so unless someone’s arm was ripped off don’t bother me,” 

That night Phasma left irritable with bruises on her neck, and Ben couldn’t help but feel bad for her. “Why did you have to do that?” He shouted. Jessika was just coming off of her drunk state and was a little more mellowed out than she usually was. 

“What? Choke that little whore out?” She asked. 

“Her name is Phasma and she was trying to help me figure out what the hell Nihilus is doing,” 

“Did you get anywhere?” Jessika filled up a cup with crushed ice and some water. “No, you didn’t you don’t even have to answer that.” She held her finger up, pausing as she downed her water. “So even if I had kill her it wouldn’t have done much to affect the efficiency you’re having now would it?” Ben was tight lipped. She was right, but that wouldn’t help his argument. Rey wouldn’t listen to moral arguments, Jessika was even less likely to listen to any type of argument whatsoever. He resigned to putting his head down on the table. 

“You know she has a point,” Poe said. “We actually have a plan to figure out what Nihilus is planning. We just haven’t included you because of what happened with Rey.” Ben turned to Poe, 

“Is it automatically my fault for being scared of a girl that’s killed over a hundred people? Is it my fault for being wary of the least trustworthy person ever?” He gestured to Jess and she laughed.

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me—”

“—will you two just shut up!” Finn spoke up, he turned to his boyfriend, “you are not making things easier, okay? I love you, babe, but shut up. Jess, Ben, you guys are acting like assholes, just shut up and accept the fact that we’re going to have to learn to work with each other okay? None of this feuding is going to matter in the end if we’re dead!” He pointed back to Rey’s room. “Just so we’re all clear, a cranky hormonal vampire is not our worst problem at the moment!” 

“—did you just call my sister hormonal?” 

“ _ Oh my god, don’t take this personally but shut the fuck up.” _ Jess giggled and rolled her eyes. 

“Sorry, just thought you getting angry was funny. Anyways,  go on. You were talking about our worst problem or whatever.” 


	18. Chapter Eighteen: It Seems So Sinful

“Okay, the problem we have right now is a vampire hunter that wants to have all the power for himself, and possibly take over the world with the power of a demon that almost ended the world like not even a month ago. So we need to focus on that, Poe’s creating bugs for Jess to put on Nihilus and in his office as well. We’ll find out what he’s planning and go from there. Doesn’t that sound simple enough?” It did. Ben didn’t know why he didn’t think of that before. “Now, since we have that figured out. I’m going to bed, and if there’s any drama. Please just keep me out of it.” Soon it was just Jessika and Ben left in the room, which was never a good thing.

“You really screwed her up, you know?” Her voice was quieter than before, less harsh. It was like she was putting up a front and now that everyone was gone she let it fall. Ben turned towards her,

“What?”

“She might not show it, but she’s really upset.” Jess looked down at her cup of ice water. “I’ve never seen her that sad before.” Ben didn’t say anything. She certainly didn’t look upset, she looked like she’d gotten amusement from watching Ben suffer. “She drank so much vodka on the roof, it was bad, really bad.” She looked up at him. “I guess that doesn’t matter to you though, does it? And after I thought you’d be good for her too. I guess that shows how good my character judgement is.”

“I love how everyone’s so concerned about Rey but no gives a shit about me,” He knew that sounded selfish. “It’s all concern for Rey and, _why’d you do that Ben?_ But never _are you okay?_ Just one of those would’ve been nice.”

“Sometimes we aren’t afforded kindness,” Jessika shot back, “I know that you must be hurting too, because Rey is by no means perfect, but she loved you. That should’ve been enough for you.” With that, she left.

* * *

 

Rey wasn’t kidding about not waking up until Thursday, she didn’t wake up until Thursday. She came out of the bedroom yawning into people pouring over notes and books and Poe fiddling with Ben’s computer. “Damn.” She said. “You guys got shit done.”

“Come here,” Poe motioned her to the seat next to him, she came over, completely ignoring Ben all together. “Jessika bugged his office yesterday, we’re already receiving feeds.” He turned it on.

 _“The Consulate has not approved you efforts to drill into the hole, yet.”_ Someone said through a patchy feed.

“ _I don’t really care what the Consulate wants me to do, now start gathering a team. Do what you need to acquire a team. I suggest the Summer Society girls, they’re strong, and rather easy to control too.”_

 _“Actually,”_ The person said on the other side of the line, “ _Jessika’s sister… she killed them all… except one._ ” Rey almost snorted. She knew that she’d made the right call, and now everyone else in the room knew that too.

 _“What?”_ The sound of Nihilus angry sent chills through her bones, suddenly the intercoms for the school came on with a deafening screech. “Students, it has just come to my attention that the vampire problem is much worse on this campus than I thought it was. Yesterday, thirty girls were cruelly murdered by none other than Rey Kenobi…” She laughed, getting up from her chair,

“Bite me old man,” She said.

“Rey, this is bad.” Jessika said.

“He can suck my dick, I’m not scared of him.” Rey caught Ben’s eye, albeit reluctantly. He saw right through her of course. She was about to open the door when he got up, she didn’t know what his plan was, or what he wanted to do, but she walked out and he followed her. They both walked down the stairs for a while before Rey turned around. “When I said ‘he can suck my dick’, it can apply to you too.” Ben looked down at her, but he wasn’t mad, he wasn’t upset, he just looked confused and concerned. _God, why did he have to look like that?_ She avoided his gaze, trying to think of anything else but him.

“Talk to me,” He said, “I know you’re afraid.”

“You’re the last person I would talk to if the world was burning and everybody I loved was dead.” Every time her mouth ruined it for her, every single goddamn time, but she couldn’t exactly come out and tell him how she felt now could she? Not after what he’d said. Not after what the both of them had said to each other. He still hadn’t left. _Fucking hell, she just wanted to cry alone. Why couldn’t he understand that?_ “You don’t get to pretend to be concerned about me when you were so offended that I didn’t tell you about some things I was trying to forget, you don’t get to pretend to be concerned after you decided that someone you barely even know was more trustworthy than your own girlfriend?”

_DAMN IT!_

She was crying. Everything was just so goddamn stressful. She needed a drink. Ben tried to give her a hug, but she pushed him off of her. “Rey, can we both agree that we did shitty things?”

“We both did shitty things, Ben. I know that. I’ve spent my whole life paying for shitty things that I’ve done, and I thought that you would understand that I tried to redeem myself, but no. You didn’t understand and you still don’t, you’re just as idiotic and judgemental as every other mortal that I’ve met. God, I can’t believe that I ever tried to be with you!” That stung him, but it felt good. It felt so good to hurt him for that split second, “you know… Kylo was better than you were.”

“—was that necessary?”

“—yes. It is necessary, and he was better. He understood what actual struggle was like, you know? We both had things that hurt so deeply, it was a miracle we got out of bed some days. You? You’re a poor excuse of a man that will never amount to who he is,”

That’s when his eyes burned, and he turned back up the stairs, his hands clenched into fists. Rey was left alone, and maybe that was a good thing, maybe she was meant to be alone. She stayed there in the stairwell, crying, until she sensed it. Sensed him. There was an overwhelming nauseous feeling in her stomach—one she only got when Snoke was still around—and it only got worse. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore it.

That was a mistake. She passed out.

* * *

 

Ben didn’t think it would be so easy for him to find them, but it was. There he was, standing in their dormatory, and Rey was nowhere to be found. “Where’s my sister?” Was the first thing that Jessika asked.

“Your sister is okay, Ms. Pava. Now, I would like to discuss some other matters with all of you.” Phasma stepped through the door behind Nihilus, along with a few others. Ben’s stomach dropped. Of course…

“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” Jessika hissed at her, but Phasma didn’t react. She wasn’t looking at any of them. Ben didn’t know what it was about Nihilus, but he felt like he was going to throw up, he didn’t know why he couldn’t remember his face when he looked away— 

“I’m here to offer you a deal, Solo.” Nihilus said. 

“Ben, don’t listen to him.” Suddenly Jessika collapsed next to him. Finn and Poe were awfully silent. 

“I can’t exactly do anything to Jessika, but you can, find out how to kill her and Rey, and you three could be free to go back home to your parents, ignore all of this. You will be guaranteed free passage back to where you belong,” There was an obvious answer to that, and Ben was surprised that Nihilus would even consider pulling a trick like this. He stayed silent, not looking at the vampire hunter before him. There was something oddly chilling and vacant about the man, and Ben didn’t want to find out what it was.

* * *

 

_ “It’s time for you to get up now,” Rey turned in the bed to see Kylo, smiling in the bed next to her.  _

_ “Do I have to?” She asked. He smiled, looking down on her with that same sad look he always did. “Can we just stay here? There’s nothing to do today,” He shook his head and got up out of the bed.  _

_ “You need to get up, Rey. You’re friends are going to die if you don’t. He’s going to die.”  _

_ “What?”  _

_ “Don’t play dumb. You know what,” Rey got up in the bed, feeling a little disoriented. Kylo looked back at her, pain in his eyes. “You know you have to go back, you’ll regret if you don’t go now.”  _

_ “Kylo, you’re not making any sense. Just lay down with me, and we can go back to bed. You might just have a fever.”  _

_ “I’m dead.”  _

_ Everything went silent. “Kylo, please _ —”  _ He cut her off  with a kiss, and Rey choked, realising something she’d been trying to deny.  _

_ “Go, I know… it’s okay… just go, and forgive him, please?”  _

_ “You know I can’t do that,”  _

_ “Yes you can, you forgave me for betraying you.”  _

_ “That was different,”  _

_ “Yes, what I did to you was worse. Now go,” _

* * *

 

When Rey came back in the room, Nihilus was gone, Ben’s nose was bleeding, Finn and Poe were passed out on the couch, and Jessika was sitting on a chair, using Phasma as a footrest. “Damn, I would ask what happened but I decided I don’t want to know,” 

“What happened was you weren’t here,” Ben griped. 

“I was gonna ask you if you were okay, but I guess not.” She moped, “Anyways who shoved a stick up your ass?” 

“Oh, he’s just mad because the friend that caused your breakup turned out to be a traitor and nearly broke his nose, and then I told him I told you so.” Jessika said. “That’s fine though, because I told him so, and therefore he can rightfully feel like an idiot.” 

“Okay, listen, whilst I can agree there let’s at least wait until his nose stops bleeding.” 

“Thank you,” He muttered. She nodded, turning to Phasma with a certain vindication, Jessika took her feet off her. “You’re not going to kill her,” 

“Nope, not gonna kill her just gonna scare the shit out of her.” With that, she screeched at the top of her lungs. Phasma woke up, and Ben cursed behind her. 

“You—”

“You and I are going to have a talk.” 


	19. Chapter Nineteen: Done

“Let’s play a game,” Finn and Poe woke up too, “you tell me things, and if you lie or withhold any information, I break a finger.” Phasma growled, tried to buck Rey loose, but Rey wasn’t taking it. She’d wanted to do this for such a long time. “Got it, bitch?” She nodded as best as she could. Rey started, “How long have you been working for Nihilus?”

“A week,” Almost as long as the breakup had been.

“Good, good. Now, what did you tell Nihilus about us? Hmm,”

“I didn’t.” She broke her pinky and Phasma screamed. No one came to help her though. “Okay, fine. I told him that you and Jessika were staying here. And I said that Ben was naive.” Of course she did.

“I don’t think that’s all.”

“I said that you would be easy to delete out of the equation if you and Ben were mad at each other.” Rey went quiet, but she slammed her fist into Phasma’s hand, shattering bone.

“That’s enough now,” Ben said. Rey got up off of her. She was panting on the ground, and it was so good to see.

Rey spat at her, and started to walk away. “Are you going even after what she just said?”

“Just because she manipulated the situation doesn’t mean she’s the only one at fault for our break up,”

“You’re just proving her right by leaving, sis.” Jess muttered. Rey turned violently.

“Are you on his side now?”

“No, I’m just telling you what you need to hear.” Rey sighed. 

"Just get her out of here then, I don't want to see her face." Her voice cracked, although she wasn't sure why. She assumed it was because of whatever Nihilus had shown her.  Ben was staring at her as Jessika dragged Phasma out to the hallway. "What?"

"Nothing, I just... Are you okay?" It sounded so much like when he cared. He probably didn't though. 

"I'm fine." She turned to Poe. 

"You okay?" 

"Yeah," he groaned. "I'm fine... Just... Tired..." Something in him stopped when he saw Rey's eyes. "Wanna go up to the roof?" She nodded and they both got up to leave. 

"What about working together?"

"We can do that tomorrow, right now I have plans." She spat at Ben. The both of them walked up to the roof together, and Poe took a small baggie from his pocket. Rey started laughing. "You have weed?" 

"Three joints, you look like you could use one." She took one and he lit it for her. She doubted it would do much of anything considering the fact that she was a vampire and her drug tolerance was higher than a lot of humans, but she appreciated the gesture. It did end up mellowing her out, and that was probably what Poe was intending to do. It turned out the two of them were a lot alike. Poe didn’t look too affected by the weed either, he just got really quiet as well. 

“I still don’t know why you’re being so friendly to me.” Rey said quietly. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for it. I just —”

“To be honest, I don’t know why. I mean, honestly it kind of started out of spite for what a dick Ben was being. But you’re genuinely upset and I don’t like that.” A smile played at Rey’s lips. “You did inadvertently saved our lives several times so—” The both of them laughed, and Rey crushed the end of the joint under her boot. 

“Well, I think we should go back down.” Rey just felt tired, and a little bit loopy, but that anger that had been there before was gone now. She hugged Poe tightly before they exited the roof. They were both silent for a moment before Rey asked, “Do you think Ben’s gonna be jealous?” 

Poe laughed, loudly. “Probably, man. He’s just that stupid.” 

“Yeah, I know.”

“Because—I’m really gay man.”

Rey snorted at that. “Yeah, I know.” 

“ _ Soo gay,”  _

“The gayest.” Poe nodded. 

“You got it,” He said. 

The two of them got to the dorm, and sure enough Ben was moping down there. No one else was in the room except for the three of them, and Ben narrowed his eyes down at Poe. Then looked to Rey, his eyes softening a little. “Can we talk?” He asked. Rey looked to Poe, gesturing for him to leave. He did, but rather reluctantly. She stood there, silent. “Sit,” He said. When she still stood standing he said, “Please?” She walked over to the seat next to him. 

“What do you want?” 

He looked like he was about to cry. Rey didn’t know why. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for getting so mad at you so quick.”  _ Oh, that was a surprise.  _ “I shouldn’t have done that.” Yet he didn’t apologise for everything else, for not letting her explain things, for wanting to break up with her and making her feel like a monster. No, that was still justified. “Will you forgive me?” 

“I don’t think I can,” She blurted out. “Not right now,” Rey was about to get up when he said, 

“That’s fine.” He said. “Just consider it, please.” 

“I will, eventually…”

* * *

 

Ben had watched Rey close the door to her room behind her, and when she was gone he laid his head on the table, his head was pounding. It had been a while since he had flat out just cried, but he did. It was pathetic and he wished that he hadn’t done it, but the more that he tried to stop, the more that it came out. His entire body was wracked with sobs. 

He cried until he was too tired to get up, until he was too tired to make any more tears. It was dark, and he thought that everyone else had gone to bed. “I fucked up,” He whispered. “I fucked up so bad.” There was soft movement in the background and he jumped when he saw a cup of water set down next to him, there was a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up. Rey stood there, silently. Her hair was down and she was dressed up like she was going to go out, her eyes shone slightly in the dark. “Rey?” 

She smiled slightly, and then looked to the door. “Calm down,” She told him. “Calm down and take the bed for the night, I’m going to be out.” 

“Why?” 

“Hungry,” She said, “but anyways, I’m kind of tired of fighting you. So calm down, I forgive you.” He didn’t know why she had such a sudden change of heart. He nodded and got up. 

“Thank you,” 

“I’ll be out for awhile, get some sleep.” He nodded, watching her leave while he went back to the bedroom. 

_ Maybe there was hope, _  he thought to himself,  _maybe they could be friends again and maybe eventually she would forgive him for the fuck up... Just maybe._


	20. Chapter Twenty: Were We Ever Friends?

For the next few days it felt like Rey had all but disappeared. Sure, she was still around, reading books and translating them into English for Ben to translate later, but she was all but silent. Ben didn't bother talking to her. He decided that this was better than what it had started out as. 

It was nighttime when everyone else had seemed to go to sleep that she finally spoke. “Fuck!” She shouted, tossing a book across the room. Ben turned around. He couldn't help but be curious. 

“Usually I've found that books going airborne doesn't help research,” Rey rolled her eyes. 

“Yeah well neither does crying,” 

“That's a low blow,”

“Sod off,”

“Oh that's the most British you've been in a while.” Rey stuck her tongue out at him and Ben laughed before a pause of prolonged silence entered their conversation. “Seriously though, are you okay?” Rey nodded, almost smiling back at him. 

“Yeah. Just frustrated that things are going so slowly,” 

“I get that,” 

“I don't think you do,”

“Everything must be so slow to you… Having been alive for so long and everything…”

“I think it goes by too fast. Or at least, it used to.”

“What does that mean?” 

“I don't know how to explain it, Ben.” She yawned. “All I can tell you is that out there, without all of  _ this--”  _ She gestured vaguely to everything around here. “Nothing is of consequence. I never stayed anywhere long enough for anything to matter.”

“You stayed with him…”

“As long as he let me.” Rey said, “But even then everything became numb and cold. I had to pretend that everything that mattered to me didn't matter anymore and forget about it. Otherwise it was going to break my heart,” she stopped talking for a minute, “sorry I was rambling. I'm tired and probably didn't make any sense.”

“No it's okay,” Ben told her. “I actually kind of miss just--talking, you know?” Rey didn't reply to that. She just got up to grab her book and sat down across the room again. 

“I do know one thing about Nihilus,” 

“What's that?” 

“He'll be predicting almost every single thing we do. We know that Phasma was a spy, but how can we be certain about anyone else.”

“Like, Jess?”

“No,” Rey growled. “I meant like Finn or Poe.” 

“I thought you and Poe were all buddy buddy,” Ben huffed. 

“Ben,” 

“What?”

“He's gay. Stop it, and for another thing. I didn't say they're doing it intentionally. Nihilus has some ability to be able to debilitate people for as long as he needs. If he continuously did that to one of them he could be manipulating them and using them as a spy.” That did make a lot of sense. 

“What are you saying?”

“I'm saying we can't be too careful what we tell people okay?”

He nodded. 

More silence. “Rey?”

“Yes,”

“How does Nihilus have powers? Aren't vampire hunters mortal?”

“No,”

“Then what are they?”

“Not human,” Rey shot back. 

“I'm being serious,”

“They don't have hearts asshole,” 

“What?”

“They don't have hearts… literally. What's that one book about the british wizards thats really popular?”

“Harry Potter?”

“Yeah and you know how the villain splits his soul into a bunch of parts,”

“Horcruxes, yeah.”

“Well it's kinda like that except he just split his heart into two and put it in two external objects.”

“Why didn't you tell me this before?” Ben asked. 

“Because I was too busy being mad at you.” Rey mumbled. “Plus it was in the book I threw across the room a few minutes ago. It's not like it helps us much though because we still don't know what the hell Nihilus is going to do and we don't know what objects he put his heart in either. So we know how to kill him but not where the fuck or what the fuck the things needed to kill him are,” Ben stays silent, pouring over more translations. 

It's one in the morning when he says, “Did you ever actually have feelings for me?” Rey looked up from her book. 

“What?” 

“You heard me.”

“Yeah, I was just trying to figure out if I was hallucinating or not because that was literally the second dumbest thing you have ever said to me,” Rey deadpanned.

“Just answer the question,”

“Really, Ben? Now?”

“Yes,”

“Hell yeah, I have feelings for you!” 

Have?

Rey seemed to notice her mistake because she turned back to her book without saying another word. “I had feelings for you,” Ben said. 

“Oh well thats too bad because you fucked it up royally,” 

“Well you lied!” Ben shouted.

“Since when is negating a few details the truth?”

“A few details? You didn't tell me you had a fucking sister who has killed a few cities worth of people!”

“Because she died before Kylo, and I didn't want to bring it up! If you really want to get all up in arms about shit that either of us did wrong, why don't you talk about how you trusted a fucking spy over me?”

They were both in each other's faces now, Ben staring down at Rey. It was the closest they'd been in awhile. 

“How was I supposed to know she was a spy?”

“You're right. She was shady as fuck but you're an idiot, so how would I expect you to know?”

“Idiot? At least I'm not a narcissistic, nihilistic vampire that's scared of letting people to get closed to her!” Rey stopped for a minute. 

“Naive-”

“-Sarcastic-" Rey cut him off. 

Ben forgot how much he craved the taste of Rey's lips.

“Idealistic-”

“Assholeish-” They were practically breathing down each other's necks. 

“Delusional-” Rey was insulting him, cutting him off each time they called each other names, but he could see something else behind it. Something soft that she hadn't shown him before. 

"Beautiful-"

"Handsome-"

He couldn't help it. 

He kissed her. 


	21. Chapter Twenty One: Mercy Brown

 

Rey turned white, standing there silently. Ben instantly regretted his actions. “I’m sorry,”

“I need to clear my head,” She was out of breath, looking like she was going to pass out.

“Rey—”

“No—”

“Get away from me,” She turned to the door and was about to walk out when she looked back at him for a second, tears in her eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but she didn’t wait for him. She walked out.

“You fucked it up with my sister _again?_ ” Ben nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Were you watching the entire time?”

“No, was listening though.” Jessika sat in the chair that Rey had been sitting in just a few seconds ago. “Boy, you’ve both got it bad.” She said.

“She still has feelings for me,”

“Duh!” Jessika threw the book Rey had left on the chair in Ben’s general vicinity. “Why do you think you haven’t died yet?”

“That’s not funny.”

“Well I’m not trying to be funny, asshat. I’m just telling it like it is. You know she told me that she was going to use a soul sucking blade to kill the angler fish god and in turn sacrifice herself, for you.” That seemed like so long ago. Ben missed those days.

“You know she never would have done that for anyone else.”

“Kylo probably,” Ben mumbled. “She talks about him like he’s perfect, so she probably would have done it for him.”

“You realise that the only difference between Kylo and you is that he had a scar on his cheek, you have glasses, and he was a bigger asshole than you.”

“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Ben mumbled. Jessika rolled her eyes.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, I’m just telling the truth.” She deadpanned. “She was trying to get away from her other life when Kylo found out.” Ben tensed. “Rey told me everything, she wanted to marry him and have kids.”

“Do you know how unlike Rey that sounds?”

“If you think that my sister doesn’t want a family you’re lying to yourself.” The girl spat at him, “Anyways, let me finish my thought. Thank you. She wanted to have the full shebang, a life with Kylo and everything. Even though in the back of her head, she knew that eventually Kylo would realise that she wasn’t aging and something was up. So she got them tickets to the Americas, when they were just forming into an actual country. Then Snoke told Kylo everything about her, the one time she slipped up and bit him, the people she’d killed, everything.”

“Honestly not wanting to be with someone because they killed people is a very reasonable thing.”

“—And yet I think you already knew what you were getting into.” Jessika hissed, “You knew she was a vampire and that she used to lure people because she was being manipulated by an ancient malevolence, and despite your moral compass that’s so apparent now, you still fell for her.” Ben was silent.

She was right.

There wasn’t anything to say back to that. “Kylo went to Rey, told her what he knew, and he watched Rey cry and beg for him to stay. He didn’t. In fact, he was the reason she was locked underground in a prison of _his blood._ Do you know how traumatising that must have been for her?” It did sound like a nightmare.”And there’s so much more that I wish I could tell you, so many things that she’s gone through that she made me promise not to tell you—anyways, that’s not what matters. What matters is that Kylo wasn’t the most perfect person in the world and neither are you, she still loves you.”

She left.

* * *

 

The next day, Ben came out in the living room and saw Rey in the living room listening to tapes with Poe. “That’s interesting,” Was the first thing she said.

“What?”

“Nihilus is already in the works of framing Jess for murder and getting her kicked off the Consulate.”

“And where’s Jess,”

“Dealing with the Consulate.”

Ben nodded. “What else do you have?”

“He was talking a lot about having his belongings secured in a safe next to his desk. I’m already having that worked on.”

“What? How?”

“You know the Summer Society girls that Rey turned into vampires?”

“Yeah,”

“They’re doing it.”

“What if they die?”

“They’re disposable.” Rey said, nothing but monotone in her voice. She might have been surprised to see that Ben wasn’t overtly objecting to it this time. “That’s all we have for now though,” Poe closed the laptop and Rey went to sit down on the completely opposite side of the room.

“I’ll just… leave you two alone.”

They were left alone for a solid thirty minutes before Ben said, “So about last night.”

“About last night,”

“I’m sorry,”

“Don’t be,”

“Wait, what?”

“I know what it’s like to be kissed by someone who wanted to make themselves feel better,” That stung. Ben’s heart sunk and it sunk low. “Don’t feel bad about it,”

“You were crying.”

“Everyone cries, Ben. It’s just a part of life.” She brushed it off so easily, and it took Ben a minute to remember that this was something she did. She deflected to make it seem like she didn’t care.

“Right.”

“Right, so are we done? Or are you going to be more awkward until I say something that makes you mad.”

There was another silence in between them, but it wasn’t as icy as it had been before.

* * *

 

Jessika was trying not to have another aneurysm.

Nihilus was talking and she had resorted to clicking a pen, over and over again, using it as a way to release the anger that was coursing through her veins as he spoke of the scum that were vampires. “Unholy creatures, untrustworthy, and dirty.” He said. “They do not deserve to be of this Earth.”

The woman that looked slightly like an owl to Jess was the one who spoke up to him, “I’m sorry for interrupting you sir, but may I remind you that the Consulate does not tolerate discrimination against any species—”

“I wasn’t discriminating,” Nihilus said, “I was merely telling the truth.”

“It may be your truth sir, but it is not the truth of the Consulate. We do not discriminate. We merely decide what to do with the pit. And I know you have other ideas of what to do with Snoke and the angler fish god stuck in it, so please just talk about that instead.” _Thank you,_ Jessika thought to herself. She thought she was going to go crazy. Although this created an odd icy tension that she wasn’t sure she liked very much.

“Yes, forgive me. About the pit. I believe that the angler fish god has a power that cannot be ignored, and we must instead focus on not how to contain it, but how to drain it of it’s power and harness it for our own agendas.”

“Like a power source?” Another person said.

“That is a rather smart idea,” Someone added.

Jessika thought she might die. Then Nihilus asked, “I want to hear Jessika’s thoughts on this idea.”

She was silent for a minute before pointing to herself. “Who? Me?” Everyone was looking at her waiting. “Frankly I think it’s the second worst idea I’ve ever heard after Twilight,”

“Oh, please never speak of those books.” Someone said.

Jessika could feel Nihilus’ eyes boring holes into her. This was going to be a long meeting.

 

* * *

 

They got the diary. It was thick and leatherbound and Rey was the first to open it. It was written in a different language. Not English, not Sumerian. But German. Rey had a rough grasp of the language, and no one else did. So of course, she was set to the task of writing things down and translating them.

Poe and Finn had been in the back for hours, not seeming to want to come out as Rey and Ben read through things. Reading the writings of this deranged man made Rey sick. Especially after one entry that she found. She closed the book and put it down next to her.

“What’s wrong?” Ben asked.

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

“What?”

“That man is pure evil—”

“Rey, you’re not making any sense.”

“Right. Sorry.” She looked back at Ben. “Do you know who Mercy Brown is?”

“No,”

“Kriffing— okay, okay… Mercy Brown was declared the first ever American Vampire. She wasn’t really a vampire though, she was a witch. Anyways, that’s not the point. Mercy’s whole family died of tuberculosis. All of them. The women seemed to fall ill, one after one after one. Then Mercy died in the winter, one year. Later that year, her brother, Edwin got tuberculosis too. And someone got the idea that maybe someone was draining him from life beyond the grave. So they convinced the father to exhume the graves of everyone who had died in the family. Everyone was in a normal state of decay and put in the ground. Except Mercy—who—because she died in the winter was not buried. She was put in a building that was essentially a walk in freezer. She was in a perfect state of preservation. This freaked people out and they cut out her heart and kidneys, to find that blood was still in them.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“The heart and kidneys were burned and made into a tonic that was supposed to heal her brother Edwin. It killed him. But there was still poison left.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Ben repeated.

“Because the person that exhumed the bodies, the one that cut out her kidneys and heart… was Nihilus.” There was fear in her eyes that Ben had never thought he would see in her. It made him scared. He wanted to comfort her, but he felt like right now was the worst time to get anywhere close to her.

“Shit,”

“I can’t do this—”

“Rey, calm down.” She was about to get up, to puke, to run, Ben wasn’t sure. But he caught her in his arms. She didn’t struggle or try to get away from him, she just stood there as he held her, breathing heavily. “Listen, I know, this guy is insane… but we’re going to win. We’re going to win and then you’ll never have to see him again.”

She was silent for a long time, then saying, “You don’t know that.”

“The power that will come from the anglerfish god will make the Consulate the most powerful organization on the face of this Earth, we can take and control any supernatural being. Do you not want power?” Jessika knew that most of them were eating this right up.

One thing that she knew of men, elves, immortals, and werewolves is that they were all greedy. That greed would be the death of them. She looked over at the owl woman, who was looking back at her uneasily. Before she collapsed.

Another few hours, and Rey was getting antsy waiting for Jessika’s return. “What if there’s something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” Poe tried to assure her.

“You don’t know that,” She spat. “What if she’s dead?”

“She’s not dead,” Ben muttered.

“Or hurt, or kidnapped or being tortured—”

“—Or getting some pizza and some advil because I have a killer headache?” Jessika walked through the door and Rey nearly pounced on her, nearly knocking the box of pizza out of her hand before Poe took it out of her hand and started going to town on it.

“Oh my god, Jess please answer your phone.”

“Sorry, sis. Phone was dead. Meeting ran long.” She looked wary, and frustrated. Most of all she looked afraid. Both Rey and Ben realized there was something wrong.

“What happened?”

She sat down, grabbing a piece of pizza. “One of the Consulate members died in the meeting today.”

“What?!”


	22. Chapter Twenty Two: Another Day Goes By, So Hold Me Tight

Everyone was on edge after they heard Jessika recount how her only ally on the Consulate board dropped dead. They listened to how the Consulate had ratified the measures to go ahead and start drilling into the pit, to examine the anglerfish god, and how there was increasing suspicion on her now that the member was dead.

Rey was hanging on to her sister the whole time, her eyes close shut as she listened to her story.

“I’m sorry.” Jessika said. “I’m afraid I’m not of use to you anymore.”

“No,” Ben was the first to object, and Rey’s eyes fluttered open as she stared at him. Confusion in her eyes as he said, “You’re still of use, Jess.”

“What?”

“Rey needs you,” He said. “Not only that, we need you.” Now both sisters were confused. “What? It’s true. We need you. You’re strong and you’re smart. You know how to get what you want and even if you aren’t in the Consulate, that skill is useful.”

“Why the sudden change of heart?” Jess asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it, but what made you change your mind?”

There was a pregnant pause, the air filling with a thick silence that made everything feel awkward. _God, Ben hated apologizing. He was so bad at it._ “I just realized that some things are more important than misguided morals. The things you did were your past, and it’s not my place to judge.” He apologized, but his eyes were on Rey the entire time.

She was staring back at him, but her face was impossible to read. “Well thank you,” Jessika said, “Your apology is accepted.”

Both Poe and Finn stared at everyone, confused as to what just happened.

“Did Ben Solo just change his mind?” Poe choked on his pizza when Finn said that, and everyone began laughing. Including Ben himself.

Everything was going to shit, and each of them had their general share of fuck ups, but they laughed anyway.

This was their comfort.

It was late again, and it seemed to be a habit that Rey and Ben end up the last ones awake. Ben knew that she was behind him, in the dark. She didn’t say a thing and she didn’t move. She just stared at him as he edited videos that would inform the student campus of what was happening.

“You know, they’re probably going to be blocked by the firewall.” Rey said. Ben jumped. He didn’t think she was going to talk to him at all tonight.

“I have to try,”

“Do you?”

“Yes,”

“Or is it just your insane need to feel like a hero?” He wasn’t sure if she was purposefully trying to antagonise him or was just trying to get him to go to bed.

“Yep, probably that too. Either way the people need to know what’s happening.”

“Spoken like a true superman,” She laughed bitterly.

“Hey, that’s a compliment. Clark Kent’s hot.”

“I always thought he was cuter with the glasses on, to be honest.” Ben almost blushed. He was glad they were facing opposite directions. He took his reading glasses off for second, placing them by his computer as he turned to where her shadow was.

“Uh, Rey?”

“Yeah,”

“About earlier—” His voice caught in his throat.

“I know what you were saying,” She cut him off. She still hadn’t moved any closer to him.

“And?”

“I knew that you were mainly talking to me.”

That wasn’t really what he meant. Did she accept the apology is what he wanted to know. “Do you—”

“—I told you a while ago that I forgave you.”

“Did you mean it?”

Silence.

“Rey?” She was next to him all of the sudden, on the same bench close to his desk. The light from the computer illuminating her face.

“No,” She said. “This one was more heartfelt and easier to believe, so I guess that I do now. I don’t know, some things are hard to explain.” Ben pressed his lips together. Rey pressed a hand on his thigh. _God—how awful he felt when his blood started rushing down south. It had been so long since they—_

“Don’t feel bad about it though? Okay?”

“I don’t know if I can control not feeling bad.”

“Ben, I’m serious. I just… need time before I go into trusting you again. It’s not your fault, that’s just how it works. Okay?” She moved her hand slightly, and Ben bit his lip, trying to use the pain to distract himself.

“Yeah, okay.”

* * *

 

 

It was another week before anything happened. Rey seemed a little nicer to Ben than she had been before.

She made him coffee, offered him pizza, and watched him edit his videos. But besides that, not much else happened. Poe helped Jessika do some errands and life went on. It was almost as if something was waiting for its right time. When silence lulled and everyone was happy or at least, okay.

When that thing thought is was right, Poe collapsed, and Finn screamed.

Poison.

It was poison.

The tonic of Mercy Brown. He was dead by the time Rey got to him. Everyone was in shock, to say the least. But they all knew this was meant as a way to slow them down from stopping Nihilus.

Rey was silent as she hugged Finn who was going into hysterics. “Listen,” she said. “I need your permission for something.”

“Huh?” He asked between sobs.

“I can bring him back,” Rey said. “But… I want to know if you want him back-”

“Rey you could die from drinking poisoned blood-”

“I can bring him back,” Finn wanted him back, and he wanted him now. Rey told him of what would happen when Poe turned, and Finn would need to leave the room, and give Poe some space as he figured out his newfound immortality.

Finn didn't care.

Rey set to work, sinking her teeth into Poe’s wrist. It didn't take long for Finn to leave the room. Rey could hear the sound of retching. Ben asked Jessika to go see if he was okay. He stayed with Rey as she continued feeding. She tried her best not swallow the blood, it gathered in her mouth, the sour taste of the tonic mingling with the sweet taste of his blood. She could feel herself getting dizzy as she kept feeding. She forgot how much blood she had taken in before she had to stop, turning to the side and throwing it up.

Rey forgot that Ben was still there. God, he was probably so scared.

She was a monster to him again, wasn't she?

Ben placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Her eyes were watering and she felt hot, but she nodded, going back to Poe’s body. They could clean up the blood later. She was almost done. She could feel a tremor in his chest. He was coming to. She could feel her lungs burning, and her throat accidentally constricted. Rey could feel the diluted poison run down her throat and begin to settle in her stomach. 

She jumped back when Poe’s eyes fluttered open, and he shot up. He looked to Ben for a second, with that look on his eyes. The eyes of a new vampire thirsty for blood. “I’m sorry about this—” She kicked him as hard as she could and he passed out. Ben was frozen, trying to process what happened when she started throwing up again.

Ben held her hair behind her back as she retched, all the blood that she had ingested in the last few days now purged from her system.

She passed out.

* * *

 

Poe woke up in a room that was stripped of everything, there was no furniture, no nothing. The only other person that was in the room was Jessika. He could hear everything though, Finn’s heart, Ben’s heart, every heart in the campus, his head was pounding. “Where are the others?” He asked.

“Rey nearly died bringing you back,” Jessika said. “She’s in the other bedroom, Finn’s crying in the living room.”

“I have to go to him—”

“—no, you’re staying in here for right now.”

“What?”

“Newbie, I don’t know if you know this, but if you haven’t had blood yet. You almost attacked Ben, which means you might attack Finn. Stay here. After a few weeks you’ll be stable and then you can see him. Okay.”

Poe laid down again.

“Fuck, how did this even happen?”

“Remember that errand you ran with me? To drop in a duplicate of that diary we stole,”

“Yeah,”

“I’m pretty sure you came in contact with the poison in his office, it might’ve been on your fingers, and gotten to your lips somehow. We cleansed everything else to make sure that nothing you touched was still infected. Now, rest. God knows you’re gonna need it. I’m going to make a blood haul.”

“Wait—”

“—What?”

“You said Rey nearly died…”

“She drank your blood. Poison got into your bloodstream. She ingested some of the poison as well.”

“Can you tell her thank you?”

“If she comes to,” Jessika left, locking the door from the outside. Poe leaned back, closing his eyes, trying to go to sleep. At least he might be able to get rid of his headache that way.

 

* * *

 

Ben Solo had been terrified many times, but he didn’t think he would be as scared as he was now. Rey had thrown up all the blood that was keeping her from collapsing. She was so weak that she could barely get out of bed, and her skin was turning a greyish color. He had felt her forehead, and it was on fire. Vampires were never supposed to be warm, he knew that.

She was sleeping now, and Jessika slipped in the room. It was nearly pitch black, to try and make her as comfortable as possible. In her sleep, Ben heard her utter his name. Not his, but Kylo’s. His heart sank as he held a cold cloth to her head, trying to get her temperature to go down. “It’s not a pleasant dream,” Jessika whispered.

“How do you know that?”

And that’s when he heard it again. The whimper. It was pleading. Rey was pleading with him. “I don’t care if they—” He tried to get her to stop tossing and turning and stay still, but it didn’t work. She writhed in agony for a few minutes, but wouldn’t come out of her slumber. “—kill me, just run. Please run.”

That’s when he couldn’t stand it anymore, he shook her lightly.

“Rey!” Her eyes fluttered open and she started coughing, looking up at Ben’s face.

“‘Sup, cupcake.” She said when she stopped. Her voice was hoarse and her eyes could barely keep 

could barely stay open.

“Haven’t heard that in a while.” Ben laughed, tears stinging her face. The only thing worse than facing the brunt of her anger was seeing her dying. He couldn’t see her dying again.

Just as soon as he said that she was asleep again.

“I’m going to go.” Jessika said. “Take care of her, ya?”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to get some blood.”

Ben nodded. He remembered a time when that sentence would have weirded him out, and now… it didn’t.

He stayed there, watching over Rey as she slept.

This time she wasn’t tossing and turning as much, and he liked to think it was because she knew that he was there.

 _You’re giving yourself too much credit._ He told himself.

Either way, he just wanted her to be okay.

Ben found himself whispering under his breath, “I need you to be okay. I need you to be okay.” Because even if she wasn’t going to get back together with him, even if she would never really forgive him for what he did, the pain that he went through when he thought she was dead the first time was too much to bear. She was a person that had woven herself into his life, and tearing her out of it in such a way would destroy him.

He felt like he had been there for hours and hours, waiting for Rey to wake up. And she finally did. She didn’t look too great though. “Hungry,” Was all she said. 

Jessika hadn’t come back yet. “Jess isn’t back yet,” 

“So hungry,” Was all she was able to say. She was crying. 

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.” That’s when he had an idea. He rolled up his sleeve and offered his wrist to her. She shook her head no. “It’s okay.” He told her. “It’s okay. You’re hungry.” 

“No,”

“Rey,”

“No, okay?” Her breathing was heavy. “I might hurt you. I might lose control.” 

“Well that’s fine, I’ll be fine.” 

She shook her head no, and pushed his arm to the side, weakly. 

Ben had to feed her, and he had to feed her fast. He found two water glasses in her bedroom, and broke one, cutting his wrist open and letting it spill into the second cup. He ignored the pain and waited until he stopped bleeding before coming back to Rey with the cup of his own blood. He was light headed. 

“You hurt yourself,” 

“Just drink,” 

She was too weak to protest. He held the cup to her lips, and she drank. 

When she was done, she looked better, sitting up in the bed a little before deciding it was best not to try yet. “Thank you,”

“No problem. I just want you to be okay.” She was crying again. “Hey, what’s wrong?” 

“I never deserved you, did I?” 

“What?” She was still hot as hell. Maybe she was delusional, Ben hoped she was and she didn’t actually think that. 

“I never deserved you…god, I’m such a monster.” 

If this wasn’t just a delusion—

“Rey, listen to me. The last thing you will ever be is a monster, even to me, you are never a monster. Okay?” She nodded. “And I’m not just saying that to make you feel better.” 

“Promise?” 

“Promise.” And he meant that wholeheartedly. 


	23. Chapter Twenty Three: Rey's Birthday

There were some times that Rey very much felt like a monster. Drinking Ben's blood was one of those times. She didn't tell him that was what she thought, she didn't tell him that it made her feel humiliated, and grossed out and angry with herself. He didn't notice, just went to patch up his arm and told her he was going to lay down for a bit.

He didn't come back for what seemed like forever. Rey was in and out of sleep for a while. At some point Jessika had woken her up and given her more blood, but she wasn't sure she remembered when.

It wasn't until the next day that Ben came back into the room. "Sorry," he said, "I fell asleep and no one woke me up. You okay?"

She nodded, smiling the slightest bit when she saw him. "Better," He sat down next to her bedside, when Rey could feel heat rising in her cheeks. "Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you-- uh-- can you lay down with me?"

Ben looked confused for a second and Rey thought that he might say no. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, that's not it. It's just-- are you sure?" She looked up at him, nodding softly.

He kicked off his shoes, then took of his socks, belt, and glasses. Rey watched as he moved to the other side of the bed. "On top of the covers or under?" He asked her.

"Under." he nodded and gently lifted up the covers, making sure that he didn't jostle the bed too much when he did. She could already feel his warmth as he moved a little closer, unsure of just how close he should get. Rey closed the distance. "Are you okay?"

Rey nodded and closed her eyes. She forgot just how much she missed having him by her side, feeling the comfort of his rhythmic heartbeat. "I'm okay now," she said. "Are you okay?"

"Of course," Rey opened her eyes. He was so close to her… "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Yesterday-"

"Rey,"

"You watched me-"

"Rey, it's fine-"

"-you hurt yourself for me."

"Because you were in pain, I just wanted to help you."

"Still," she hated it. "You shouldn't have to do that," Ben wrapped his arms around her, bringing her head into his chest.

"Don't blame yourself," He told her. "You nearly died for me."

"That's different,"

"No it isn't." Rey was silent as Ben ran his fingers through her hair gently. They stayed this way for a good thirty minutes before Ben said, "Hey, Rey?"

"Yeah?"

"I just realized something,"

"What?"

"It was a random thought but… I don't know when your birthday is."

She tensed. "Why do you need to know?"

"Because, it's your birthday … and if you weren't born… I would probably be really depressed or dead." That made her smile, just ever so slightly.

"It's today," his eyes shot open.

"What?"

"I don't like celebrating it," She told him. "Especially since I have had three centuries worth of birthdays." She snuggled in closer to him. "Besides, I think having you here is enough of a present to me."

* * *

 

Ben felt like he was going to burst into tears after she said that, but for Rey's sake, he spared her the embarassment. Her skin was so soft, softer than he remembered.

His arm was wrapped around her exposed middle, the other softly cupping one cheek of her ass. He realized this, a little too late, but Rey didn't seem to mind so he didn't move.

They must have been there for three hours before he woke again. "Rey?"

"Yeah?"

"I have to go to the bathroom," She took the hint and scooted to the other side of the bed as Ben got up. She didn't ask him to come back, although he probably would have if she did.

 _Maybe she'd had enough of him for the day_ , Ben thought.

He went to the bathroom and then headed to the kitchen, where Jessika sat sipping on what he hoped was wine. "How's Poe?" He asked.

"Fine." She said. "Hungry. I'm only giving him one bag of blood a day. He needs to learn how to control himself." Ben didn't question that. "How's Rey?"

"A lot better."

"Did you have sex?"

"What?!"

"You're missing your belt, socks, and shoes, so I just assumed-"

"She's still recovering,"

"Right."

"And we're not together."

"Never stopped people from having sex. Let me guess, she blue balled you instead."

"Okay, just stop. I was gonna get some water for later." She rolled her eyes, going back to her wine. "Can I ask you something?" Jess nodded.

"Did you know it was Rey's birthday today?"

"Yeah,"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"You never asked. For one. Two, I was murdered on her birthday."

"Jesus fucking christ. Why is everything so depressing with the both of you?" He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"Price of being a monster," Jessika said calmly.

"You and Rey aren't monsters,"

Jessika looked confused, yet again. "Do you have a fever?"

"No,"

"Were you pod peopled?"

"No,"

"Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Because you're Rey's sister."

"You didn't care about that before,"

"Yeah well I'm stupid like that."

"At least we can both agree on that." They both laughed before Ben fell silent again.

"I want to get her something,"

"Well you're in no position to leave when Nihilus could attack at any time."

"Even just like a chocolate bar or something, I don't know."

"Well that's actually attainable. I can go find a vending machine."

Ben perked up a little. "Will you?"

"Yeah," she said. "It can be your little present to her and it won't piss her off too much,"

* * *

 

Rey woke up to an empty bed, but on her nightstand was a small flat object with a bow on it. "He better not have brought me a-"

She grabbed it.

A chocolate bar.

Damn.

He was too good for her. There was a small sticky note under it, she took it off, reading, "Dear Rey, I know you don't want to celebrate your birthday but I honestly would feel bad if I couldn't get you a little something. Love, Ben."

Rey couldn't help herself from smiling again, feeling ridiculous as she took the bow off and ripped open the packaging. It didn't take her long to devour it, but she appreciated every single second of it.

It tasted as sweet as he did. Rey got up, stumbling a little at first before getting her balance back. She opened the door and went out to the living room. It was dark again, but Ben was still up. She stayed in the corner for a little while before saying, "I don't think I could live without you." He turns and looks in to her general direction. "Just saying," Ben opens his mouth, but she knows he's at a loss for words. She comes out of the darkness, sitting on the bench next to him again, leaning her head on his shoulder. "We're gonna beat Nihilus," She told him. "And you're going to live. That's just how it's going to be." Rey sounded more sure than she felt, but looking at him only strengthened her feelings.

They would win, and maybe, just maybe, she could open herself up to him again.


	24. Him & I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is quite a shit chapter but I needed filler lol

There wasn't a lot that they could do to keep Nihilus from starting to drill into the angler fish pit.

Once the Consulate had approved it and officially kicked Jessika out of their ranks, it was easy.

They offered students extra credit if they helped with the drilling, and surprisingly a lot of them took the offer.

They felt the effects of it a lot too; every few days there would be one very large tremor, and then a collective panic. Still they kept drilling.

They were probably all going to die.

Ben was stressed as ever, but Rey had basically accepted it.

A lot of things happened when you were about to die. Rey knew that well. Most humans wanted to make their last night enjoyable.

Even though she was sure that this was not their last night.

"Shit," Ben kicked the edge of his desk, trying to stifle a scream from coming out of his mouth.

Rey looked over at him, who had his head in his hands. He looked like he was about to cry.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

Carefully, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I fucked up." Was all that he said. "If I wasn't so stupid we wouldn't be in all this mess right now."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not even sure anymore." He admitted. "Everything's just… shit."

Rey sat down next to him. "Don't blame yourself for shit you can't control," She told him. "You're a fucking twenty year old, not some sage mastermind who has magic and can fix all the world's problems." She placed her hand on his thigh. He tensed at the gentle touch, but settled quickly. "You're going to make yourself sick,"

"That's the only thing I seem to do well."

"Ben,"

"What? It's true."

"Stop it," she said sternly.

Rey took her hand off his thigh and turned him more towards her. Ben wouldn't look her in the eye. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself. That's not going to help. I know you're upset, I get that. I really do. But you're not an omniscient god, you can't do everything right and that's okay."

 

They were close again.

"Kiss me,"

Ben blinked.

"What?"

"I can be your distraction for tonight. So do it, kiss me."

"Rey, that would be using you." Rey rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the collar. The kiss wasn't romantic, at first. It was harsh, and a bit angry, but when Ben pushed away he caught her eyes, and Rey just about melted.

For so long, she had been telling herself that she shouldn't be with him. At first, she had made herself the monster. Told herself that she was too good for him, that he was perfect and she was not worth any of it. She would go into the pits of hell, not deserving of any sort of affection or love.

Then she had made him the monster.

She had said that he didn't trust her, he was just like everyone else. His morality blinded him.

Now…

Now they were both damaged.

Both of them were responsible for hurting each other.

Ben kissed her first this time, it was soft, and caring, and frustrating. His cheeks were stained with tears. Rey could feel his heart beating faster and faster.

His hands wandered up her shirt, unhooking her bra. "Are you sure you wanna do this in the living room?" She laughs. "Could get caught,"

"That's half of the fun," he smirked.

"Naughty,"

Her bra was off, and soon so was her shirt. Ben pushed her up and onto his desk, his computer and books crashing to the floor.

Fuck, she had never wanted him as much as she did right now. Rey pressed her lips into his skin, her teeth lightly grazing his neck. Ben let out a moan. "Fuck, I love you so much."

Rey didn't say a thing.

She let him take what he wanted, and then she switched places, it was almost comical how hard the desk broke that night.

* * *

 

Ben was more sore than he'd ever been in his life, to be honest, it was hard to walk right after last night. Rey was drinking coffee across the room.

"Why is the desk broken?" Was the first thing Finn asked when he came into the room with Poe.

"Is that a hickey?" Poe asked Ben. Rey spit the coffee she was drinking back into her mug.

  
"I heard you two assholes fucking on the desk," Jessika walked in grumbling. "You couldn't be any fucking louder, could you?" For the first time ever, Ben didn't feel embarrassed.

Rey was staring at him from across the room. "It didn't suck," she said as she sipped her coffee. "Right, Ben?"

"Right."

"You two are weird." Finn went to the kitchen to go get breakfast and Poe turned to Rey.

"So are you two together again?"

Silence.

Ben's heart sank.

"No." She answered. "We're not."

Poe rolled his eyes. "Delaying the inevitable, kid."

"I've got centuries over you."

"I know. I'm gonna get wasted. See you guys."

"Don't murder anyone,"

"I'll try not to."

Ben wanted to know what he had to do to get back with her. He wouldn't tell her that though. He was too scared.

  
She was just being kind last night.

She didn't actually want him.


	25. A disappearing act that may lead to things next chapter

Waiting for the world to end was the worst feeling that had ever come over Ben, but Rey seemed to not even care. She’d convinced him to start binge watching  _ Black Mirror  _ with her and Jess, and was walking around in fluffy pajama bottoms and bat slippers that Ben had no idea where they came from. 

 

“Move, cupcake.” She sat down in between him and Jess, pressed close to them as they started the first episode of the first season. 

 

Ben was too distracted by Rey’s hand creeping up his thigh to remember what was going on, all he remembered was there was something to do with a pig and it was fucked up as hell. 

 

They’d wasted a shit ton of time until they’d gone all the way through season four. Jess said something about going to get high with Poe and left. Finally, Ben and Rey were alone. 

 

She scooted away from him on the couch and Ben wanted her back where she was. “So,” she said.

 

“So?”

 

“We don’t have to make this awkward right? All we did was have sex.”

 

_ All we did was have sex.  _ It was more than that though. 

 

At least, it was to Ben. “You’re going to make this awkward aren’t you?” She bit her lip and looked at their TV screen. Ben glanced up at her. 

 

“When don’t I make it awkward?” He laughed. “I’m just naturally a fuck up. Couldn’t stop myself from pushing you away, couldn’t save the world…”

 

“Ben—”

 

“Just... _ generally shit—” _

 

“Ben, you’re nineteen. You’re not wise or all powerful, you’re human. You fucked up. So what? We all do.”

 

Something about that was comforting coming from her. “So, I fucked up and I can’t get you back.” Rey rolled her eyes. 

 

“Was that whole spiel of self loathing an attempt to get me to get back together with you?” She asked. 

 

“No,” It kinda pissed him off that she would assume such a thing. 

 

“Sounded like it,” she sighed. “Whatever.” She got up. “World’s gonna end Ben, no point in trying.”

 

_ Maybe …  _

 

“What can I do to get you to trust me again?” She didn’t answer, instead saying something about going to drink some blood. 

* * *

 

Rey wished that the end of the world was quiet, so that she could just spend the rest of her days pretending like it wasn’t going to happen. 

 

She, Jess, and Poe, all sat in a room silently feeding together. “So,” Poe tried breaking the ice. “Rey, why are you still holding a grudge against Ben?”

 

“I will stake you with my shoe,” Jess hissed. “She’s eating, asshole.”

 

“Just sayin’, the world’s gonna end. Why not tap that as much as possible?”

 

“It’s not that simple,” Rey muttered. 

 

“Isn’t it though?”

 

“Poe, shut up and feed.” They were silent for a while again before Poe said, 

 

“What if you’re making it out to be more complicated than it actually is?” Jessika sent her shoe flying. It narrowly missed his head, the heel making a dent in the wall and staying there. 

 

That’s when Finn knocked on the door. 

 

“Guys, Ben… uh… found something you might want to see.” They all got up, leaving discarded blood bags on the floor. Jessika retrieved her shoe from the wall before following suit. 

 

Rey blanked out on most of the nerdy explanation that he went through when he was talking about what he’d done to tap in on an actual consulate meeting, and tuned back in when he got to the good stuff. 

 

“ _ What have findings been in the pit so far?”  _ A patchy voice said through Ben’s computer screen. 

 

“ _ There have been one or two small explosions. A few students dead. Nothing we can handle. There is intense raw power there that can be harnessed.” _

 

_ “And what of Snoke?” _

 

_ “The Dean is nowhere to be found, sir.”  _ Rey’s stomach turned as the audio cut out. 

 

“There’s one more.”

 

Ben pressed something on his computer and an announcement from the school came up. 

 

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is of my great regret to inform you that we have criminals amongst our midst. Dissenters that must be brought in for not abiding in the faith of Nihilus.” Rey was already thinking about cutting off his head. 

 

She could do it. 

 

She really could. “The criminals are none other than Ben Solo…” That’s it. He was going to die, “Rey Kenobi,”

 

“Yeah, fuck you too, asshole.”

 

“...Jessika Pava…”

 

“ _ Please, like any small minded plebeian at this university could bring me in… _ ”

 

“...Poe Dameron…”

 

“Ha!”

 

“...and Finn Trooper.” Everyone rolled their eyes. Finn had obviously not done anything wrong ever.

 

“Ah, I see that you have caught up with the school announcements.” Nihilus had somehow made it into the apartment. Rey was… reactionary… to say the least. She took the chair closest to her and flung it straight at his head. The folding chair hit him but he did not seemed phased in the slightest. “Nice welcome. Lovely.”

 

Rey dropped to the ground, her head pounding.  _ Retaliation. _

 

“Now, I have come to offer a deal. Since we all know that you have no idea what you're doing and are powerless to stop me, I will kill you all very quick and painlessly. Starting with the boy,” Ben’s eyes widened Nihilus turned his attention towards him. 

 

“No!” Rey shouted. 

 

“Did I ask?” Her vision tunneled as she tried to get up, but she saw Nihilus surging for Ben, who narrowly dodged his first swipe at him. Nihilus was so close to getting a hold of him. And then—

 

He was gone. 

 

Rey’s vision went back to normal and everyone went silent. 

 

Ben had disappeared into thin air.

* * *

 

Ben fell to the floor in a room that looked exactly like the living room he was just in. Except, this one was dusty and filled with cobwebs. 

 

“Rey?” He called. “Jess?” 

 

No one answered, but he heard voices right outside. Instinctively he ducked behind the couch. He saw Rey and Jess walk through the door, but something was wrong. “Did  _ he  _ send you here?”

 

“The Dean wanted me to make your grieving process easier,” Jess said. “But frankly, Rey, I don’t know why you keep holding onto this mortal. Or why you would hold on to any mortal, really? They die like flies.”

 

“He was different.” Rey said. “He was so...nice… and he just kept looking at me as if I wasn’t a monster.”

 

_ What was going on? _

 

“Even when I was taking him to the pit, he had faith in me, even when Ben died he told me it was going to be okay. Do you know how awful that is? Sometimes I still hear him, and I just cry because I know he would never forgive—” 

 

“But I’m here.” 

 

Rey looked around. She hadn’t seen him behind the couch. “No, no, no. Not now. Please not now.” Ben pushed himself up from behind the couch. He was confused as hell, but his first instinct was to comfort Rey. 

 

“Rey, it’s me. I’m here.” She stared at him, wide eyed. 

 

“You’re not real,” Ben stepped closer. 

 

“I am.”

 

“No… I saw you die.” Another step. Rey closed the distance. Placing one hand on his chest. “It’s impossible.” She pulled him into a hug all of the sudden. Ben caught Jess looking confused out of the corner of his eye.  _ That makes two of us. _

 

* * *

 

Nihilus had left. 

 

No point in killing them unless he could kill all of them. Rey had practically torn apart the place looking for Ben. She kicked the wall of the apartment. “You can bring him back now!” She shouted. Silence. “Bring him back!” 

 

A glass of water on the coffee table shattered, and Rey sat down on the couch, panicking. “Calm down.” Jess said. 

 

“We’ll find him. Wherever he is.”


	26. to when it changed

“I missed you,” Rey smiled and sat down on his lap as he was explaining everything to Jessika. 

 

“Poe would know what happened and what we need to do.” He would. When Jessika realized that Rey wasn’t going to let Ben get up. She went to go find him herself. Once she was gone Rey kissed him. It was hard and vicious and lustful and desperate. She broke away first. 

 

“Sorry,” she breathed. “I’m sorry I just, I’m sorry about everything.” She looked to be on the verge of tears again. 

 

“Hey, it’s okay.” He said. 

 

“No, it’s not Ben. It really isn’t. God, I’m a monster.”

 

“Hey, shush. You’re not a monster, okay? You’re not. Stop that.” Rey tried her best to smile. 

  
  
  


“Ben?” Poe walked through the door with a bottle of whiskey in his hand. Ben looked up towards him. 

 

“Oh, hey.” Poe laughed, and walked over to give him a hug. “How are you still alive, man? We all watched you die.” That sentence was surreal to hear.

 

* * *

It had been ten hours since Ben had magically disappeared and Rey was running herself ragged trying to find him. She had done three sacrifices and read through tons of books about witchcraft.

 

“ _ Fuck!”  _ She shouted. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” The room trembled with the bravado of her voice. 

 

“Rey, he’s not dead.” Jess tried to calm her. 

 

“You don’t fucking know that!” She was hyperventilating. “You don't  _ fucking  _ know that Jess, so stop with the bullshit and help me find him. He might still be in danger and if he is…” She trailed off, hanging her head. “I’m such a stubborn ass.” She muttered. 

  
  


***

 

“So you’re from a parallel universe that the apartment sent you to after Nihilus tried to kill you,” he said. 

 

“Yeah.” Ben answered. “And I need to get back to help them, because the world could end with whatever Nihilus is planning to do. Can you help?”

 

“Yes, because I can totally build a portal to another universe.” Poe rolled his eyes. “I can try. I don’t think this Rey would like it very much if she found out that you were trying leave her though.”

 

“Yeah. I know.” He said. Just then, Rey walked through the door with a plastic bag in her hands. 

 

“Hey Poe,” She muttered. 

 

“Hey, Rey… Listen, I’m gonna get going. Talk to you later, okay?” He left and Rey sat down opposite him, sitting the plastic bag down on the desk in front of them. Her hands shook as she opened it. Ben had never seen her so nervous. He hated it. 

 

“I-I didn’t know what you liked, so I just grabbed one of everything. Is that okay?” 

 

“Yeah.” Ben looked through the bag of assorted snacks and picked out a small chocolate bar and set it to the side. He set a hand on Rey’s thigh. “Hey, are you okay?” 

 

“Yeah, I just… it’s weird, you know?” Ben took off his glasses for a second, leaving them in his hand as he pulled Rey in for a kiss. It was short, but sweet. He’d missed doing that with the real Rey.  _ No, this one was real too. This is what would’ve happened if he died.  _ Rey smiled, “You’re too good, Ben Solo.” 

 

“Thanks, I try to be. You don’t need to be sad anymore. I’m here. I won’t leave you.”  _ But he would have to leave.  _

 

“Gods,” She said, “stop. I don’t deserve it.”

 

“Yes, you do.” He said, “Even if you can’t see it now. I know you do.” Rey smiled, and Ben thought she might cry again. 

 

“Sorry,” She said. “You must think I’m a mess.” 

 

“No,” Ben replied, “I don’t think that at all.” 

 

“We need to talk more,” Rey told him, “There’s so much I want to get to know about you.” Ben’s heart tugged in his chest as he heard her say this. He had to get back to the actual Rey. Not that she would actually be worried about him. 

 

“Yeah, I know. We do. But I am a bit tired. Is it okay if I go take a nap first?” Rey looked a bit disappointed, but she smiled and nodded, pointing to the bedroom. 

 

“I’m going to talk to Jess,” She said. She left shortly after Ben closed the door to the bedroom. Ben looked around the bedroom. There was no wallpaper, but words were scratched in the walls crudely. Ben turned the lights on. He couldn’t believe what he saw.

 

* * *

“I think I have something,” Poe said. 

 

“About how to get Ben back here?” Rey asked. 

 

“No, but this will help us be able to communicate with him.” 

 

“I may have found something else.” Jessika said, she was practically dying of laughter. “I found out how to kill Nihilus.” 

 

“How?” 

 

“With my murder weapon,” She said. “Only one thing… He destroyed it. So guess what, we’re fucked!” 

 

Something sparked in Rey’s head, and she got an idea that might’ve been the least stupidest thing she’d ever thought of. “No we’re not,” 

***

 

The words etched on the walls read, “Ben, if you’re able to see this, we have no way of telling if you’re okay or not. We don’t know if you we can get you back either, but there’s something we need you to get. You need to get the stake that originally killed Jessika. It should be somewhere near Snoke’s office.” It was signed Rey. 

 

Maybe she did care. 

 

The question was, how was he going to get it from the Dean’s office? 

 

“I can get it for you.” Ben nearly jumped out of his skin. Jessika had been standing for god knows how long behind him. “‘Cuz you’ll definitely die if you come anywhere near him, and I don’t think my sister could deal with that.”

 

“You’d do that?”

 

“Yeah,” Jessika said. “No big deal. Just promise me one thing.”

 

“What?”

 

“You’ll never abandon my sister.”

 

Ben swallowed. “Of course.” He said. “Of course.” 

 

“Good.” Jessika said. “Because if you do I'll resurrect you just to kill you again myself.” She grinned devilishly, and then walked out the door. “Au revoir.”

* * *

 

Rey had given up on trying to help. She was fucking useless, and everyone knew it. “I’m an ass.” She kept saying. 

 

“Why?” Jess asked. “I mean, yeah, you kind of are. But why?”

 

Rey didn’t even crack a smile at her attempt at humour. “I should’ve forgiven him sooner.” 

 

“Maybe so,” Jess said. “But you were mad for a justifiable reason.”

 

“Yeah I know. Still … what if he’s dead and he thinks I’m still mad at him? Because I’m not.”

 

Jessika was silent. 

* * *

The Other Rey was back in the living room, and Ben joined her. She immediately pulled him closer. “You know, you’re really warm.” She said. “I like that.” 

 

“Perk of being alive, I guess.” He tried to laugh, tried to be normal, but she caught on. Pushed him back a little bit. 

 

“What’s wrong?” She asked. 

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Your heart rate changed.” Shit. 

 

It didn’t help that just then, Poe burst through the door. “Ben! Good news for you buddy! I found a way to get you back to your universe. You need the stake.” 

 

“What?” 

 

Apparently, Poe didn’t realize that Rey was there. “Oh, shit.” He backed a safe way away from Rey, but Rey looked to Ben. 

 

“You’re planning on leaving?” The way her voice cracked broke his heart. 

 

Ben couldn’t lie. He nodded. “I’m sorry,” 

 

“I just got you back,” 

 

“I know.” Rey looked like she was going to burst into tears. “I know, Rey. But I have another Rey, who’s alive like you, and she needs me.”  _ Even if she doesn’t love me like you do.  _

 

“There’s something else,” Poe interjected. Rey glared at him but he continued. “After he leaves we’ll cease to exist.”

 

“What?”

 

“This timeline was fabricated for him to get the weapon and go back to his own timeline. So, Rey… once he goes… you won’t feel a thing. Cuz you won’t exist.”

 

She was silent for a second before saying, “Fine. Go.” 

 

“Rey-”

 

“Just… don’t leave her okay?” She pulled Ben in again and buried her face in his chest. She was crying again. “Because I can’t bear it. I can’t live without you.” 

  
  


“I won’t leave,”

 

“Okay.” She said. “Then I trust you,” 

* * *

It had been three days since Rey had last seen Ben and she had finally just passed out from exhaustion. She was bent over, sleeping on Ben’s desk, when she felt it. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked to see a very confused Ben standing in the middle of the room with a stake in one hand. 

 

She got up, standing there, taking him in.  _ He’s alive, he’s alive, he’s alive.  _ “Hey.” He dropped the stake to the side. 

 

“Hey,” Rey said. Then the anger came. “Where the fuck were you?” 

 

“What?” She surged forward. 

 

“I thought you were dead! I was worried sick.” They were centimeters away. 

 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would worry.” 

 

“Yeah, well I did.”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“Shut up,” 

 

Ben nodded, and Rey’s eyes softened. “Ben?”

 

“Yeah?” 

 

“I missed you.”

 

“I missed you too.”

 

“Ben?” 

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Kiss me.” 

 

He did. 

 

She sighed, he pulled away first. “Rey?” 

 

“Yeah,”

 

“I don’t want to be single anymore.”

 

“Neither do I.”

 

“Can we…” Rey embraced him. 

 

“Yes.”


End file.
